Participating in Peer to Peer English as an independent study has really helped me grow as a writer and student. Through the months I have participated in this class, I have moved to write at such lengths that I never thought possible. This class has pushed me to finish a full-length novel. The novel has sprung from certain in-class assignments, such as a movie script genre exploration. The Underground, a novel I have been working on since before this class, has sprung in my genre studies in this class.
I have worked with a genre exploration that I had done at the beginning of the semester. When I created this project for the class that was based on creating a movie script, it really helped me make my novel feel all the more authentic. The authenticity of my book came from working through a movie based script and seeing a little more realistically characters would have worked out together. When writing a book, I did not actually consider the way humans worked in the way they spoke or the way they acted. But when writing the movie script, I thought a little more about the way people spoke or acted. I tried to imagine if this were an actual scene, how would this play out? Would it be as interesting in my mind on paper? And would this idea play out on paper in a screenplay?
Through the processes in this class, I’ve also made plenty of mistakes. In my writing process and as a student, I’ve made simple mistakes. There have been times where the creativity didn’t flow and I spent more time staring at a blank page instead of forcing a little more of the process. In this class, when NaNoWriMo came along and I turned to focus on my book, I had some days where instead of writing, I was more occupied with other things that kept me in a writing slump. I had days where I didn’t battle so much with the writing process but instead let it slip away from me. If I had the chance to fix that, I’d battle a little more with the writing process just to learn better of it.
I’ve gained a lot through having this time. I have grown as a writer and a student. This class has opened a lot of options for me too. During this time I was able to take a break and work through some things that I would not have time for. I was able to grow as a writer in this hour a day. When writing outside of school, there was always a struggle to find the time. And even when finding the time, there were moments of writing on a phone and having little to no focus. With this class, I had doors open for me to write. No longer did I have writing time in the small moments I could fit it, between classes or on the drive places on my phone, I had a moment to sit down and have my own sacred writing time. I was able to work through and reach limits I never thought possible. I was able to open a door of publishing, writing, and expanding.
When reading articles at the beginning of the semester, I was able to see how other people may offer up options to explore different genres. Genre and the exploration of the many types of genres have opened up the way I write. Here I can see different points with other genres and how it reflects in my writing. The writing that has been portrayed through other genres has reflected on me in a way that molds my writing. I was able to see points where short bursts of words work and become powerful. I was able to look at the difference between short stories and novels. I was able to create a mindset of open writing that didn’t bind me down to one set of rules of writing.
The mindset of a writer has drastically changed. Having a teacher who was able to help build my writing into something new was incredibly helpful. Working as an independent study has helped with my work in that aspect. I was able to get the one on one help that was necessary to build my own novel. It was helpful for me to have that chance. Without the chance of being in this class, I would have lost the ability to publish and even finish my book. This independent study has really opened up my eyes to the steps of writing through trial and error.
Along with growing as a writer, I’ve grown as a student in this independent study. I’ve gained the ability to work through problem-solving on my own and approach unknown materials with an open mindset. The work I’ve done has been mostly independent and approached differently than the usual work that is done in a class full of other students. With other students, I would have not gotten that one on one help that would have been used in a standard classroom. Working as an independent study in this setting has helped me grow through many challenges that may have been faced in the classroom. I can take skills that I learned in these aspects and pick them up to put in different settings. The writing skills in separate genres can be lifted and placed in another setting. The work in a genre study based class could be lifted and placed in separate settings like an English classroom.
Writing and editing a novel turned out to be some of the skills I was able to replicate in my novel. The time I had to learn on writing and editing has helped in other classes. While editing a book, I have earned some editing skills that could relate to the process of essay writing. The skills I’ve worked on with writing could relate to writing things such as articles or essays in another class. Through this class and the processes I’ve learned, I can turn many skills into skills for something else.
Working as an independent study has not only been beneficial for now but can be beneficial to me in the future. The exploration of genre and what genre means has changed me as a writer, reader, and student. Work that I have done in this class can be picked up and mimicked in other classes that I come across.
A.D Sugarbaker 