I start every portfolio letter with saying that the writer’s portfolio is well-constructed. I geniunely mean that statement. Every portfolio that I have had the pleasure of reading is one that is well constructed, sometimes to the point where I’m afraid of toppling the house of cards with a possible revision suggestion. But lately, it feels like I’ve run out of comments.
I am currently in two creative writing workshops. I really enjoy both of them, and I have learned so much about myself as a writer from taking these two workshops. One workshop, poetry, was a genre I felt comfortable in, but still forced myself to grow in. The other workshop, fiction, was in a genre I had not written in a while, and learning to orient myself to being a prose reader and writer was a challenge. I am responsible for writing letters for all the writers in my fiction workshop, plus the select few from poetry. Suffice it to say, I have written a lot of letters. I also think that the more I write on a piece, the more helpful it will be to the writer, especially if I think my letter is lacking and I think of something in workshop. This amounts to many comments I have made on other people’s pieces.
My schedule next semester means I cannot take a creative writing workshop next semester. This development upset me, and I will miss the regular practice of writing, as well as the workshop environment, very much. The next two semesters are very demanding on my second major. Next semester, I will be in Block V, the last block before student teaching. This block contains four education classes, leaving me with very little room to fit a workshop in. Unlike previous education courses, they all take place during workshop times, instead of being slightly earlier in the day. In Fall 2020, I will be student teaching. This entails two placements, certification tests, and no other classes to be taken. Spring 2021, the semester where I will graduate, will be the semester in which I will have the opportunity to take my final workshop and the Senior Seminar. Needless to say, the opportunity to be in a workshop environment won’t come for a while.
How do you plan on writing regularly? What is your reflection process? Let me know in the comments.