Creativity with Karissa

At AC, we are very lucky to be provided with many opportunities. Everyday, there are so many different activities we can participate in. This is really part of the school's emphasis and belief in experiential learning. On all weekday afternoons there are a range of activities for us as students to choose from, most of them are student initiated. In fact, I might have mentioned this before, but for all students, it is compulsory to take part in at least 2 activities. Other than that though, we can take part in as many as we want as long as they don't clash with our two official activities.

I have been going for many extra activities, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays (the days that most activities are held). For this post, I am going to focus on the Creative Writing Course I have started attending, held by the lovely and dedicated Karissa, an intern at AC from the US. Since coming to AC, she has decided to start her own little course on Creative Writing. 

I like to do the occasional scribble, so I thought it'd be a good idea to sign up for the course. Since then I have attended 2 lessons and had a one-to-one and think I definitely made the right choice! Karissa gives us complete freedom in the style of writing we want to use. Unlike past courses I have been for which focus on one particular style (e.g. essay writing, poetry, short stories) Karissa accepts any format.

So far, I have done quite a few pieces for the class. All poems for some reason...

The first one I did was on the sentence she gave us; She felt very sad. 


She felt very sad - by Claire Seah
Looking but not really seeing,
Forlorn gaze out of a frosty window,
A road, a walk down memory lane,
A journey of tales,
A journey forgotten.

She sits immobile,
Gazing blindly,
Hand carelessly touching the glass pane,
Fingertips grazing the surface of another time.

Her face is impassive,
Brow slightly creased,
As though in a state of confusion,
Her eyes are cloudy,
Reveal her daze.

But behind her, 
Her daughter sits,
Heart heavy,

Face aweary,
She, she watches intently,
Melancholy as her companion,
As she watches the life in her mother slip away.

That's an example of what we do. We are given some form of stimulus and then encouraged to write whatever we want! Another thing I really like about the class, is the variety of pieces we have. Because we all like to write in different styles and interpret the stimulus differently, all the pieces are so diverse. It's like looking through one kaleidescope and seeing many different patterns. I truly enjoy this course and am going to make full use of the last few lessons I have!

Since this a post on writing, I'll end with some Hemingway.

"My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way." - Ernest Hemingway