Above is a PDF file of my book, ‘Wild Daisies’.
My topic of study is poetry, and the impact it has on social issues, such as feminism. I will be focusing my research on ‘the struggles of female’ and how poetry can be used as a way to raise awareness on such subjects. The reasons for me choosing the subject I have revolve around personal issues I have struggles with, as well as social issues that society is facing as a whole. Growing up, I have dealt with adversities purely based on the fact I am female and am deemed ‘unsuitable’ or ‘unable’ in terms of ability. In order to find out more about the topic I am researching, as well as the impact it has on society, I created to surveys for my friends and peers to take. The answers were quite varied, for both surveys, offering me a great insight to how feminism and poetry is seen in society.
For this project, I hope to create a poetry book following the themes of feminism and the impact it has on society. I hope to educate people on the importance of feminism. My influences are other poets with the same passion as me, such as Savannah Brown and ClickForTaz; both found on YouTube, and Rupi Kaur and Warsan Shire; both published poets. I am also strongly influenced by my personal emotions and experiences. I will research different female poets; products of poetry and the effect poetry has on society and feminism.
My target audience is mostly young people, from the ages of 16-30, of any gender, sexuality and location. However, if you can read and appreciate my work, feel free to do so.
My role in the project is made up of many jobs. First and foremost, I am a poet. I will write all of my work. I will then be editor and proof reader, making sure everything is perfect. I am illustrator, publisher and evaluator, as well.
The technical requirments of this project are Word, Flip.HTML, Possibly InDesign and Photoshop, the app Paint3D, WordPress and research material (websites, books etc.)
Throughout this project I will be evaluating my work, such as poems and layout, to ensure everything is how I want it to be. This is essential to producing the product I want.
After I have completed my work, I will then evaluate the overall process and end product. I will analyse my strengths and weaknesses throughout the whole project, as well as comparing how my work turned out against my initial expectations. I will evaluate my research, results and how they impacted my work. I will also discuss what I would have changed, given the chance and if I were to do this project again, how the process would differ.
ReferencesEn.wikipedia.org. (2018). Medium (website). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_(website) [Accessed 18 Mar. 2018].En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Rupi Kaur. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupi_Kaur [Accessed 18 Mar. 2018].Everipedia.org. (2018). Savannah Brown. [online] Available at: https://everipedia.org/wiki/savannah-brown/ [Accessed 19 Mar. 2018].Google.co.uk. (2018). savannah brown – Google Search. [online] Available at:https://www.google.co.uk/search?ei=KmHLWpDADIfRgAby67-ADA&q=savannah+brown&oq=sa&gs_l=psy-ab.3.0.35i39k1l2j0i67k1l7j0i131k1.2308.2568.0.4381.2.2.0.0.0.0.120.214.1j1.2.0….0…1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.2.213…0.0.re3bFvw79ts [Accessed 18 Mar. 2018].Kaur, R. (2014). Milk and honey. Andrews McMeel Publishing, pp.147-204.Medium. (2018). Medium – Read, write and share stories that matter. [online] Available at: https://medium.com/ [Accessed 28 Mar. 2018].Rupikaur.com. (2018). faq | rupi kaur. [online] Available at: https://rupikaur.com/faq/ [Accessed 19 Mar. 2018].YouTube. (2018). hi, i’m a slut. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6CCePrJlaU [Accessed 19 Mar. 2018].WebsiteTO BE A WOMEN In-text: (Surveymonkey.com, 2018) Surveymonkey.com. (2018). To Be A Women. [online] Available at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/summary/qJuTPQufy_2BYB8sDjSrE3cemuPHUXhdN_2FoRZk63FTb0ABT99n7XPM6XNQoQIXWhTn [Accessed 5 May 2018].TO BE A WOMENIn-text: (Surveymonkey.com, 2018) Your Bibliography: Surveymonkey.com. (2018). To Be A Women. [online] Available at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/summary/qJuTPQufy_2BYB8sDjSrE3cemuPHUXhdN_2FoRZk63FTb0ABT99n7XPM6XNQoQIXWhTn [Accessed 5 May 2018]. |
The reasons for me choosing the subject I have revolve around personal issues I have struggles with, as well as social issues that society is facing as a whole. Growing up, I have dealt with adversities purely based on the fact I am female and am deemed ‘unsuitable’ or ‘unable’ in terms of ability.
In order to find out more about the topic I am researching, as well as the impact it has on society, I created to surveys for my friends and peers to take. The questions had simple yes/no/I don’t know answers; this was to make the survey easy and quick to complete, whilst still collecting the information I needed. The answers were quite varied, for both surveys, offering me a great insight to how feminism and poetry is seen in society.
I started with researching different poets that write about feminism, their personal adversities and have a similar passion for making a difference. I recorded the different techniques they used, how they structured their writing and whether or not they went on to write whole books. From this, I will pull an overall conclusion of my work, finalising all points made making sure that the evaluation is rounded off, with no loose ends or unanswered questions.
Who am I?
Personal Statement, Amber-Louise Ingleton
In the future, I hope to be working in as a poet and author. There is more to poetry to just writing and publishing; a good poem and poetry book should be full of emotion, creatively original and carefully put together to achieve the desired effect and to pull in your chosen audience.
Studying Creative Media and Journalism at Canterbury College has given me the opportunity to experiment with different forms of media/arts, as well as different writing forms; providing me with personal insight into the creative industries. Throughout the course, I have developed incredibly important skills such as being able to produce work for a specific target audience, use a variety of Adobe programs such as InDesign and Illustrator. I have already completed a year of the course, achieving a merit.
Over the duration of my studies, I have enthusiastically approached learning new and transferable skills. Most useful of which were skills to do with poetry and audience; these skills have allowed me to better myself and my writing.
In learning about poetry and audience, I was able to better my writing and suit it to a specific audience, as well as ameliorate my writing style and how I use poetry devices to carry my sought emotional impact. Many of these skills such as specificity, personal pronouns and emotive language aren’t exclusive to poetry, but journalistic and non-fiction writing too.
In order to get my work my work into the world, I entered one of my poems into a ‘Young Writers’ competition. As my prize, my poem was published in the latest poetry anthology, which was released March 31st.
I have since applied for an apprenticeship with the BBC, within the creative journalism and radio sector. I was asked to answer questions about how I would react to situations that could arise in the work place, what experience I have with journalism and writing and to pitch an idea for a product on any topic I like, across different media platforms.
Recently I have spent my free time writing more, being more inclusive with the themes I follow, as well as branching off into journalism. This has helped my skills as a writer increase dramatically. I also hope to take part in some open-mic nights for poetry, to get myself used to sharing my work and potentially grow an audience.
What did I learn on my course?
Skills analysis task:
Studying Creative Media and Journalism at Canterbury College has given me the opportunity to experiment with different forms of media/arts, as well as different writing forms; providing me with personal insight into the creative industries. Throughout the course, I have developed incredibly important skills such as being able to produce work for a specific target audience, use a variety of Adobe programs such as InDesign and Illustrator and how to structure my work properly. I have already completed a year of the course, achieving a merit.
Over the duration of my studies, I have enthusiastically approached learning new and transferable skills. Most useful of which were skills to do with poetry and audience; these skills have allowed me to better myself and my writing.
In learning about poetry and audience, I was able to better my writing and suit it to a specific audience, as well as ameliorate my writing style and how I use poetry devices to carry my sought emotional impact. Many of these skills such as specificity, personal pronouns and emotive language aren’t exclusive to poetry, but journalistic and non-fiction writing too.
What is my project about?
Sexism is still an awfully big part of life, even in this self-acclaimed ‘prevalent’ and ‘open-minded’ society. Women still get paid a fraction of the amount men do, we’re still sexualized, objectified considered possessions. How do we expect to move forward if we have presidential and government authority with out-dated, medieval views on gender and bad haircuts? My FMP is a short collection of poetry, empowering women, promoting gender equality across all spectrums. It documents the struggles myself, and women across the globe, have faced, and still face.
I hope educate people on sexism, feminism and how they both effect society and everyday life via my poetry.
I am author, editor and publisher of this project.
Why my project is important?
I am doing this project in order to raise awareness on sexism and to educate people on feminism and how important it is.
I wish to use my poetry to better society, even in a small way. I hope my poetry will have the emotional impact to resonate with those who have been a victim of gender discrimination, as well as opening the eyes of those who are unaware/haven’t dealt with sexism. Even if my work impacts one person, I would have achieved my goal.
I have taken inspiration from personal experiences and other female poets of different styles, and who use different platforms to get their message across to their audience. I will used the information I gather to style my work in a way that effectively gets my point across to my target audience.
What Have I learnt on my Course?
Studying Creative Media and Journalism at Canterbury College has given me the opportunity to experiment with different forms of media/arts, as well as different writing forms; providing me with personal insight into the creative industries. Throughout the course, I have developed incredibly important skills such as being able to produce work for a specific target audience, use a variety of Adobe programs such as InDesign and Illustrator and how to structure my work properly. I have already completed a year of the course, achieving a merit.
Over the duration of my studies, I have enthusiastically approached learning new and transferable skills. Most useful of which were skills to do with poetry and audience; these skills have allowed me to better myself and my writing.
In learning about poetry and audience, I was able to better my writing and suit it to a specific audience, as well as ameliorate my writing style and how I use poetry devices to carry my sought emotional impact. Many of these skills such as specificity, personal pronouns and emotive language aren’t exclusive to poetry, but journalistic and non-fiction writing too.
target audience and genre week 5 year 1
week 1 year 2 writing in different genres
week 2 year 2 further into audience
Research Report
In this unit, we are planning for our FMP. To do this, we will produce a research report containing our question or ‘hypothesis’, the products of our chosen topic, industry examples, different means of research (not just using the internet), how my finding effect my topic, etc.
Firstly, I researched three products of my chosen subject; poetry.
When in the creative arts industry – writing, art, film etc- there are many different ways, or products, that allow you to turn your ideas into a tangible piece and get it into the world.
My chosen subject to explore is poetry. I have looked into some of the different products- YouTube videos, Poetry books and a website designed for aspiring and professional writers alike- of poetry, what goes into the production of each product, as well as the pros and cons of each product and a comparison.
The first poetry product I am going to talk about is the site, YouTube. YouTube is a worldwide video streaming site, where creators post videos, movies can be bought and almost anything is accessible.
‘Hi, I’m a slut’ is a slam poem written by YouTuber, Savannah Brown. Brown is a 21 year old woman, originally from Ohio, USA, that lives in the UK and writes poems for YouTube, as well as recently releasing her debut novel ‘Graffiti’.
‘Hi, I’m a slut’ is a slam poem following the issues that women face/have faced throughout their lives; a popular theme with Savannah Brown. Some of the issues touched upon include societal pressures, double standards and the sexualisation of women. Her poetry is heavily influenced by set backs and issues Savannah faced through life, as well as watching other women struggle as well.
Savannah’s audience is very diverse due to YouTube being accessible the majority of countries/age groups/ethnicity’s/gender/sexuality’s etc. With that being said, Brown’s subscribers are mostly women between the ages of 16 and 25, with an interest in social issues, advocates for these issues and a love for poetry.
Audience is also influenced by the feature recently added by Google – the owners of YouTube- that puts age restrictions on and puts in place demonetisation based on what they deem suitable. This has made it harder for creators to reach a wide audience, especially those like Savannah, who use the platform to raise awareness about things such as rape, sexualisation, eating disorders, depression, anxiety etc.
Next, I have chosen to talk about of my favourite poetry books, ‘Milk and Honey’ by Rupi Kaur.
‘Milk and Honey’ is a collection of poetry written by 25 year old Rupi Kaur at just 21 years old. Kaur was born in Punjab, India but migrated with her parents to Canada when she was 4 years old.
‘Milk and Honey’ is Kaur’s first book, containing poetry, prose and hand-drawn illustrations. The book was published in 2014 by ‘Andrew McMeels Publishing’ and is split into four chapters, each dealing with a different pain/emotion; almost as if documenting Rupi Kaur’s life and the struggles she faced.
‘Milk and Honey’ doesn’t have a set audience, however it does seem to be more aimed towards young female demographic, though not solely intended for them. If you want to read it, read.
The final product of poetry I am going to talk about is a website called ‘Medium’.
‘Medium’ is a form of social media dedicated to aspiring/professional writers, wanting to get their work out into the world. There are no rules when it comes to writing on ‘Medium’, you can write anything from journalistic pieces, to short stories, to novels; write what you wish. The website is a fantastic way for writers to bring their work to life, so to speak, allowing creators to discover new reads, as well as gaining an audience for their own.
‘Medium’ was developed by Evan Williams and owned by ‘A Media Corporation’, its official launch being in August of 2012. The site is often referred to as a ‘blog host’ and a form of ‘social journalism’.
As the same as the previous two products, ‘Medium’ has so specified audience in terms of age,gender, ethnicity etc. however, I do feel its more suitable to those between the ages of 16 and 40, as people of this age group are more prone to internet use and exposure of different ‘blog’ type forums.
Each of the products I have chosen to write about have their pros and cons, and are successful for reasons that differ as well as those that are similar.
The skills and techniques that go into each product vary but all are effective in delivering the desired outcome.
YouTube
In order to produce a quality YouTube video, a lot of thought and work needs to be put in, especially when it come to publishing a poem, such as;
- Planning; Writing a script, designing a story board, listing props&location etc.
- Setting up; Lighting, camera, mic placement.
- Filming; camera angles, retakes, sound effects etc.
- Editing; finalising clips, removing unwanted clips.
- Uploading; copyrighting, age restrictions, tags, links, potential demonetisation.
Being a content creator for YouTube and uploading videos (especially poetry) can be very hard and time consuming. You have to keep in mind the rules and regulations, how to reach a wider audience. With that being said, YouTube videos are a great way to get your creations out into the world with all of the personal emotion you wrote it with. It is also a great way to reach millions of people in almost no time at all.
A book, like making a YouTube video, needs a lot of planning. The author must fist draft their poems, before editing them down to the final piece. Whilst doing this, they must keep in mind their target audience and desired effect and plan their work around that. Poetry books are often referred to a ‘collection’, and each poem in the ‘collection’ must fit into the chosen theme in order to create the desired end product. Once the poems are finalised, they are then sorted into chapters and given page numbers. After the chapters are put into order and the first copy of the book is drafted (e.g. first idea of structure, design, illustrations etc.), it will be sent of to multiple publishing companies until one of them agrees to publish it. The next step is to finalise the design, illustrations, structure etc. before publishing the finished product. At first, maybe a hundred or so books will be published to test how well they will sell, if all is good, more will be published.
A website can be the hardest product to produce, or the easiest, depending on how much detail you would like your site to have. The owner of the website must first plan the layout of website, after, obviously, coming up with the idea for the site. Once the layout is drafted, colour schemes fonts, hyperlinks, images, gifs, video etc, will be added if they need to be. After planning, preparation and finalising the desired look and functions of the website, the creator will produce their page. This can be a paid production, where the creator produces their site through another company, or they could start with a free website creator and work from there.
Each product has its pros and cons, as well as all being respected products used by writers/creators in order to get their work out into the world.
Using YouTube is a great way to get your work across to a wider audience whilst achieving the emotive impact you intended. With that being said, you do have to worry about following guidelines and avoiding demonetisation. A book, however, has no ‘restraints’ and ‘rules’ so to speak, it all depends on the desired audience. This factor allows you to be more free with your writing. Although you are able to make your work more personal , it is very ‘touch and go’ in terms of success. You have control over sales/success rates, so it is very unpredictable in terms of how your book will sell.
Finally, a website is a great way for amateur writers to build a name for themselves, minus the hassle and expenses. It is quick and easy to upload your work, and it can reach a wider audience, minus the restrictions. However, it can take a while for you to ‘build a name for yourself’.
Overall, personally, I believe books and websites are the best option for aspiring writers. The are less ‘rules’ to follow and your creativity isn’t hindered. Although it can be a long, time consuming process- trying to get somewhere in the creative industry- using ‘blog’ websites and writing collections will gain you an audience that want to read your work, as apposed to subscribing to your YouTube channel because of your good looks, or viewing your video as a part of an auto-play series of videos or because YouTube suggested it. It may take a while, but I feel the pay off is more than that of a YouTube video.
References
En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Medium (website). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_(website) [Accessed 18 Mar. 2018].
En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Rupi Kaur. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupi_Kaur [Accessed 18 Mar. 2018].
Everipedia.org. (2018). Savannah Brown. [online] Available at: https://everipedia.org/wiki/savannah-brown/ [Accessed 19 Mar. 2018].
Google.co.uk. (2018). savannah brown – Google Search. [online] Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/search?ei=KmHLWpDADIfRgAby67-ADA&q=savannah+brown&oq=sa&gs_l=psy-ab.3.0.35i39k1l2j0i67k1l7j0i131k1.2308.2568.0.4381.2.2.0.0.0.0.120.214.1j1.2.0….0…1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.2.213…0.0.re3bFvw79ts [Accessed 18 Mar. 2018].
Kaur, R. (2014). Milk and honey. Andrews McMeel Publishing, pp.147-204.
Medium. (2018). Medium – Read, write and share stories that matter. [online] Available at: https://medium.com/ [Accessed 28 Mar. 2018].
Rupikaur.com. (2018). faq | rupi kaur. [online] Available at: https://rupikaur.com/faq/ [Accessed 19 Mar. 2018].
YouTube. (2018). hi, i’m a slut. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6CCePrJlaU [Accessed 19 Mar. 2018].
Introduction
My topic of study is poetry, and the impact it has on social issues, such as feminism. I will be focusing my research on ‘the struggles of female’ and how poetry can be used as a way to raise awareness on such subjects.
The reasons for me choosing the subject I have revolve around personal issues I have struggles with, as well as social issues that society is facing as a whole. Growing up, I have dealt with adversities purely based on the fact I am female and am deemed ‘unsuitable’ or ‘unable’ in terms of ability.
In order to find out more about the topic I am researching, as well as the impact it has on society, I created to surveys for my friends and peers to take. The questions had simple yes/no/I don’t know answers; this was to make the survey easy and quick to complete, whilst still collecting the information I needed. The answers were quite varied, for both surveys, offering me a great insight to how feminism and poetry is seen in society.
In the next chapter you can expect a more in depth explanation of my research methods, the questions I asked/answered, the data I’ve collected and the strength and weaknesses of the methods of research I used.
Methodology
The surveys I designed are entitled ‘To be a Woman’ and ‘Poetry and Feminism‘ and contain a series of questions helping me answer my question of ‘How Does Poetry Have an Effect on Social Issues Such as Feminism?’ I also researched different female poets that wrote about feminism and the struggles/adversities they faced because they were woman. This is shown in the first portion of this research pack. The type of research I have collected from the surveys is quantitative, meaning it uses numbers and statistics to give me the results I need. My surveys are primary research, meaning it is all collected from data that didn’t previously exist. My first pieces of research, however, are secondary research (also known as ‘desk research’). ‘Secondary research’ is research that comes from data that has already been collected.
Creating a survey is a great way to gather research, especially when researching society and the issues it faces. Primary research is reliable and provides a solid foundation to work from as it is straight from the source and is easily formatted/transferred into an article etc. With this being said, creating surveys can be very time consuming. First, you have to plan questions and produce the survey, then you have to release it to you audience and wait for replies. This is the part that takes the most time; you have to have a good variety of responses, as well as enough responses to be able to produce an analysis. Overall, using primary research is a great way to gather your desired data, creating a solid foundation for your work, just have patience for it can be quite time consuming and tedious.
‘Secondary research’ is quick and easy, and allows you to gather all the information you could want, and then some. This gives you a vast amount of research to work from and analyse, and you can gather it on the go, since its more than likely you have a phone with internet access. However, not all the information you collect is credible, and the data you do collect needs to to be Harvard referenced correctly and thoroughly. This part can be time consuming, as well as being a lot of extra work. Secondary researching, as a whole, is quicker and easier in terms of it being easily accessible but you have to be careful with copyrighting, referencing and the sources being credible.
Overall, I’d personally go for primary research as its very reliable and provides a solid foundation for your work.
Findings
Whilst analysing the results from my survey, I was surprised that a lot of my peers didn’t know what feminism is.
Results
- 91.49% of the people who took the survey were female, where as only 8.51% were male.
- 67.39% have been discriminated against based on their gender.
- 85.11% had either witnessed female/been a female victim of sexist discrimination.
- 25.53% felt there is already enough being done for women to be seen as equals, where as 59.57% felt there wasn’t.
- 21.24% didn’t know what feminism really advocates for. 78.76% felt they did.
- Only 53.19% considered themselves feminists, 17.02% didn’t know.
- 66.67% had read poetry, 33.33% had not.
- 83.33% had felt they had been emotionally impacted by poetry.
- 83.33% felt poetry is a great way to raise awareness for social/political issues.
- 16.67% would NOT read poetry, even if they could help put an end to sexism, 66.67% would.
I am very surprised not more people considered themselves feminists, and even more surprised so many people wouldn’t read poetry, even with the opportunity to help put an end to sexism.
These results has inspired me more to go further into how I can raise awareness for feminism and how sexism effects everyday life. I am even more determined to help people realise what feminism really is, and hopefully, gain their support.
Conclusion
Overall, I am pleased with the data I have collected, and I can’t wait to incorporate my findings into my work further. It was very interesting to see how my peers and friends are effected by such issues as sexism, and how many people actual advocate for equal rights/feminism. I knew people have toxic views on feminism, due to extremists taking the movements and making it into something awful, that doesn’t follow the ideals of feminism. I didn’t, however, realise so many of my peers either didn’t know what feminism stands for, or didn’t consider themselves feminists.
The results of my surveys, despite being nothing that I expected, have pushed me to use my knowledge and abilities to create a piece of work to both; -Answer my hypothesis ‘How does poetry have an effect on social issues such as feminism’, as well as, hopefully, shed some light on feminism and the impact it has on everyone, not just females. I’d also love to inspire more people to read poetry, and maybe even write some of their own.
Designing and putting out surveys for people to answer is a great way to gather good, strong data for any form of work, whilst giving you an insight to the world and people around you. However, it is time consuming in terms of having to wait for the responses to come in. This part is quite boring, as you have to have a good, round amount of responses to pull data from. While this is all worth it in the end, it can become tedious. I found myself reconsidering doing surveys, maybe replacing them with a different method but soon dismissed the ideas as, overall, this is the best way to gather new, usable, relevant data.
I plan to use my findings to make a statement about feminism and poetry. I plan to, hopefully, create a collection of poems following the theme of feminism and ‘to be a woman’, that I can post online, or even create a tangible book to give to peers/family/friends and shed some like on the impact of poetry and feminism and how the two compliment each other.
For my 2018 Final Major Project, I decided to combine my love for poetry and art with my desire to make a change in the world to create a poetry book. For my FMP, I decided to take my passion and create a tangible end product that can aid the movement in raising awareness for sexism and the effect it has on society.
After researching different poets and styles, I went on to look into how to structure a book, the different tasks and jobs involved in creating a book, the different genres of books, the art styles and structures etc. I then put my research into action and began planning.
The first thing I did was figure out how I wanted the book to look. I pulled together different ideas on colour schemes, fonts and illustrations, as well as how many poems I wanted to have in my book. Once finalising my desired look, I began to write my poems. Each poem took approximately between 20 minutes and two days to write,edit, finalise and prepare. After writing each poem, I drew the illustration to accompany the writing.
In order to bring my illustration ideas to life, I used a laptop app cal ‘Paint3D’. I used the basic drawing tool to create simple doodles to help bring my poems to life. After creating drawings I was happy with, I saved them as images and proceeded onto creating my actual book.
To create the initial format of my book, I used Microsoft PowerPoint as this allows me to see what my book would look like with actual pages. I started by putting my poems into the PowerPoint, figuring out the order that I liked the most. Then, I worked out the page design, fonts and colours and put them in place. After, I put in the illustrations, corresponding them to the different poems.
Once happy with the PowerPoint version of my book, I used a PDF converter to change the PowerPoint into a PDF file, to make it compatible with Flip.html5. Once the conversion was complete, I put the PDF into Flip and managed to create an online book.
Evaluation
Throughout working on this project, I had my struggles but I have also overcome a lot of adversities.
Overall, I am beyond pleased with my end product and I am immensely proud with how my project turned out. The process was long and stressful at times, and there things I would changed or improve if given another chance.
Personally, I feel as if I have showed many strengths in this project, setting myself quite big task in creative terms. A book is something that takes time and effort, so choosing to do a poetry book in the short amount of time we were allotted for this project was a very ‘hit-or-miss’ decision.
I have displayed many skills, most of which I learnt when in class. The main techniques I relied on when completing this project were those in;
- Creative writing; I had to pull on many things I have learnt throughout my two years on this course, including extended metaphors, emotive language, specificity, writing for an audience, structuring writing and implicit & explicit writing. These all played a huge role in aiding me to write to the best of my ability and to produce poems that provided the emotional impact and messaged I had hoped they would.
- Editing; One of the big things I have learnt whilst on this course, throughout every topic we covered, was how to proof read and edit my writing to a professional standard. We covered this so much, in fact, that it has become second nature now! We covered how to decipher words and phrases suitable for out chosen audience, themes and style of writing and how to appropriately swap them out for something more suited to what we were creating. This skill was one I heavily relied on whilst writing my poems, which made it so much easier to write poems that fit well with my themes and that I m proud of!
- Target Audience; This is a big one. When writing things like books, articles, poems etc. you must be sure on your audience and how to tailor your work to fit into your chosen age range, as well as how to write to appeal to your audience! This skill has definitely made it so much easier to write and be sure on my writing, as I know that it is suited for my audience and I can accumulate an audience that both understand and enjoy my work!
- Images; Images are a great way to aid the emotional impact of your writing! They are not a necessity, but they do help. This project, especially, has helped me realise that. I draw all my illustrations myself, using an app for desktop, called Paint3D. Without themes images, I don’t think my poems would have quite the same impact.
Of course, with the strengths, there are weaknesses. Some of the things I have struggled with are ongoing issues such as time management and writing for myself rather than my audience. The latter got on the way more often than I’d like to admit. With this being said, I soon realised and brought myself back into the swing of writing for my audience, using my editing skills to change the ideas I had and making them suitable for my chosen audience.
In comparing my work to those of published professionals such as Rupi Kaur, there would be noticeable differences in style, ability and presentation as, despite how proud I am, I’m only a beginner and still have a long way to go. With this being said, I will definitely be continuing with my writing, and planning other books for the future and maybe even extending ‘Wild Daisies’!
If I were given the opportunity to re-do this project, I would try and manage my time more efficiently, make sure I remain in the mind set for writing for an audience and spend less time on trying to make the book look aesthetically pleasing and focus more on the actual content, perhaps even adding more poems to make it more of a collection.
Overall, I am incredibly pleased and hope to continue with projects like this in the future, maybe even try to get published.
Portfolio
fmp-portfolio-year-2-2017-2018c
Above is my portfolio and proposal.
Amber-Lousie Ingleton; Print & Journalism 