Week 7: My Journey in Creative Writing

W7 Final Tutorial

Ever since I could remember, writing had always been a way of expressing myself when I couldn’t. Writing was a form of solace for me, a place where I could escape to for it was me who had control overwriting when I lost control of the world in front of me. Years went by and I indulged myself greatly in all forms of writing until my final year of high school where I found myself losing confidence in writing and eventually, stopped altogether. However, come final year and suddenly, there is a module for creative writing available for the semester - it was a simple decision for me and here I am, six weeks after one of the most enjoyable modules I’ve taken.

There were some hesitations at first when selecting this module for Taylor’s had offered two types of creative writing. One was under the school of performing arts which my coursemates had taken and enjoyed - for they were writing scripts and stories, indulging themselves in a world they created. This module fell under journalism. Journalism for me had always been something I was afraid of, mainly because I was under the impression journalism would be serious - however, I was proven wrong by Dr Haniz. Dr Haniz was the lecturer for this module and if it weren’t for her passion for teaching, her energetic voice, and encouraging words, this module would have been completely different. She changed my mind on journalism, and I found myself enjoying the weekly writing exercises for it was a place for me to express my opinions and at times, indulge in topics that I was passionate in.

While writing this, I am rather conscious of my usage of “I” (and I’ve already used it twice when forming this sentence). It is something Dr Haniz had advised me from the beginning and it is something I am definitely trying to take note of, but the habit is hard to shake off. However, I believe since the beginning of this module, there have been some improvements in my writing - especially in terms of noting and sticking to the hourglass format which has been a great help in planning and keeping me on track. Even though it has only been 6 weeks, there has been a lot of learning and new information to digest - which I believe is something great to add to my list of skills as now, not only am I able to create stories and fantasy worlds, I can also write about the world I currently live in from a journalist perspective.

If you were to ask me what writing style I have developed since this module, it would be a rather hard question to answer. Upon writing my feature piece, I had a conversation with a friend in terms of how my writing sounded and it boiled down to “attempting to sound pretentious” - which comes in handy for academic writing but not creative writing. I’ve slowly started to allow myself to stop overthinking my writing, and allowing the words to flow as they do off the top of my head to allow myself to write as organically as possible. My train of thought often runs off quickly hence, I have found myself pulling the brakes at times to ensure that my writing does not deviate from the original topic.

At the beginning of the semester, I had rated myself a 6 out of 10 when it came to my writing skills. After six weeks and Dr Haniz’s guidance, I can confidently say that it has been bumped up to an 8. One of the weekly tutorials, the restaurant review, contributed greatly to this confidence boost. I found myself enjoying the piece, writing freely with no inhibitions or worrying about what others would think of my writing. For the first time, I was thinking of myself rather than others. It coincidentally was a calling for me in terms of my career path. As a broadcasting student, there are way too many career paths to branch into however, the restaurant review solidified my love and passion for food and travel hence, it is something I definitely want to pursue in the long run because if I am going to commit myself to a career, it might as well be something I enjoy doing.

All in all, I had an extremely enjoyable time. Dr Haniz has been a huge inspiration and motivation both in writing and academia. Her passion for the subject and teaching shines through the weekly Zoom classes and it is definitely a bittersweet moment as we bid goodbye to this subject. My journey for writing doesn’t stop here, in fact, I believe that this is just the beginning of me writing again. Thank you Dr Haniz for a wonderful semester!