Category: Fiction

One thing that was only lightly touched on in my original version was this concept of the North Side versus the South Side. Cats on the North Side are well off, chipped, and predominately pets while those on the South Side are nip addicts, tipped, and predominately strays. Further developing this dynamic gave rise to the inclusion of the ear-tipping and animal control within this piece as well as gave more allowance for building onto Meowington’s past that had also been lacking in my original piece.

The piece is surrealist fiction, and there is a recurring theme of the narrator character looking at people and not being able to recognize their whole face. She looks at people and “catches an eye, an upper lip, maybe a smile line, but the whole picture never comes together.” In my original ending, the narrator looks at her mother and recognizes her whole face. Someone asked me what I’d think about carrying the facial blindness through to the end rather than neatly resolving that tension. This helped me think deeply about what my point was. It’s creative fiction writing so it doesn’t have a thesis or argument in the academic sense, but I do have a core idea/theme.

I like to write concisely, in a way that usually involves judgments that sometimes only I can make. Knowing when writing like this works and when it doesn’t is the most important part of peer feedback to me.

Being told what others thought I did well was really helpful during the process as it helped me see more of areas that solicited a reaction from the audience and helped me take that information and apply it to other areas that I thought could also benefit from it. Knowing where an audience wanted more details was also beneficial, as it helped me see places where I thought an audience was intrigued by or where more information was needed to help make an impact.

Someone thought it might be better to know a little background information about the characters, so I tried to mention the types of missions the girls usually go on. People also asked what type of relationship they had (platonic/familial/romantic) but I decided to keep it vague on purpose.

People wanted to know more about the viewpoint these observations were coming from, essentially who the speaker was. Also, people suggested using the title as a way of providing more context for the reader.

“My process for writing and revision varies based on the type of writing I’m working on. For fiction, I find it easier to interpolate various drafts and sections as I start to get a better idea of the shape of the story I’m writing.”

“My revision process includes reading my story with new points of view over the course of a period of time. When you are working hard on a piece, you can feel stuck with your tunnel vision on the language and story. Once you step away and forget what you were thinking about, the revisions are much stronger. Using the Writer’s Center, I was able to revise my piece, step away, read the comments, and then come back to revise with both my fresh eyes and my writer’s center tutor. Time is the best revision partner. “

“Revising this story was an ongoing process, like most of what I write is. Working with Cyd helped because it was great to have feedback from someone else on my work. I usually find that my stories are much better after revising them, but I also have to be careful not to lose some of the original charm from what I wrote the first time, because sometimes the way I choose to phrase things is more authentic the first time around.”

“It was fun to work with Hana, and I hope to come back to the Writing Center to have similar experiences in the future!”