In my sixteen years, February 2017 was the weirdest month I have experienced. I visited three countries in three weeks: South Africa for Interim, the US just a day after I returned from Interim, and Bangkok for IASAS CulCon two days after I came back from the US. It took me all week to wrap my head around the correct time zone.
With all my traveling, I missed eight days of school. One of these days was the class we spent in a mini-workshop. Kamille and Jiwon were in my group. I was lucky that they spent time reading my piece and giving me feedback while I was away. They emailed me their comments and questions, feedback I took into consideration when working on another draft.
I already knew that my first draft, the one I shared with Kamille and Jiwon, was awful. I even emailed you, Dr. Clark, before turning in my radical revision, letting you know that I hated my irreal element.
Jiwon's comments, especially, helped me realize two things. The most important was that my conflict needed to relate to the irreal element. Even though I hated my irreal element, and even though I knew in the back of my head that this was crucial to sticking with the genre, the fact that conflict and irreal element needed to be related was largely absent from my story. With my radical revision, I made sure that my irreal element, while unexplained, dealt a lot with the conflict.
The second thing I learned was that while I had strung together a bunch of pretty-sounding sentences, my plot was virtually non-existent. I think I had established a conflict well, but the way my story ended at the time did not resolve that conflict whatsoever.
My radical revision took into consideration all these comments. While I know that my revision still requires some editing, I'm much happier with the irreal element and the effect it has on the story.
Kamile and Jiwon's feedback helped me focus my own story, which was extremely helpful. However, with all my traveling I didn't get a chance to give them feedback. I'm sure that they gave each other helpful feedback that allowed them to make their story more important, but I wish that I had had the time to give them my perspective.
Early draft feedback is important. It's on rare occasion (non-existent, maybe) that we see a perfect first draft. I think I speak for most of the class when I say we all know our first drafts are not great. We know we're going to change it, that we have to change it. But at least for me, I often don't know where to start in terms of changing or fine-tuning.
Three days before the draft was due, I still had no idea what I wanted to change my irreal element to. I disliked my one at the time intensely (I believed I called it "useless" in my email to you, Dr. Clark). But take a look at this exchange Wanling and I had in the comments of my story.
With all my traveling, I missed eight days of school. One of these days was the class we spent in a mini-workshop. Kamille and Jiwon were in my group. I was lucky that they spent time reading my piece and giving me feedback while I was away. They emailed me their comments and questions, feedback I took into consideration when working on another draft.
I already knew that my first draft, the one I shared with Kamille and Jiwon, was awful. I even emailed you, Dr. Clark, before turning in my radical revision, letting you know that I hated my irreal element.
 |
| Jiwon's comments |
The second thing I learned was that while I had strung together a bunch of pretty-sounding sentences, my plot was virtually non-existent. I think I had established a conflict well, but the way my story ended at the time did not resolve that conflict whatsoever.
 |
| Kamille's comments |
Kamile and Jiwon's feedback helped me focus my own story, which was extremely helpful. However, with all my traveling I didn't get a chance to give them feedback. I'm sure that they gave each other helpful feedback that allowed them to make their story more important, but I wish that I had had the time to give them my perspective.
Early draft feedback is important. It's on rare occasion (non-existent, maybe) that we see a perfect first draft. I think I speak for most of the class when I say we all know our first drafts are not great. We know we're going to change it, that we have to change it. But at least for me, I often don't know where to start in terms of changing or fine-tuning.
Three days before the draft was due, I still had no idea what I wanted to change my irreal element to. I disliked my one at the time intensely (I believed I called it "useless" in my email to you, Dr. Clark). But take a look at this exchange Wanling and I had in the comments of my story.
Wanling, at 2 in the morning, commented something in her delirious sleep-deprived state that ended up changing the direction of my entire story. (I was considering titling this post "Ramblings Past Midnight: How a Random Comment Might Save Your Life").
That small piece of feedback was immensely helpful. If I had been around to give early draft feedback that helpful to Jiwon or Kamille, maybe their stories would be different than the ones we'll be reading on Thursday.
I don't know the current state of their drafts, but I'm sure that the feedback they gave each other was useful. I just wish I'd been there to offer my own opinion.
Hi Roopal,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great, detailed reflection on how you used electronic means to get feedback, and use it, for your first draft. More than half of the task, though, is to give input to your group too, even if you are living your craziest month ever. You definitely have the hang of how to use evidence of your work, but this is a two-way street--even a bit of input on your group's stories might have been meaningful. Still, you show some deep reflection on the response and questioning portions of this assignment.
DC