Blog #3: The Study and Creation of Myths

I discovered that the experience of creating a myth and studying myth is intertwined. Creating myth is different in that it requires a lot of creative thought. I found it was more difficult to write than the poetry assignment because I have more experience in reading a vast canon of poetic works. Myth, on the other hand, is a genre I have less experience with. My biggest challenge in writing the myth was finding a starting point. I felt that our study of myth helped me to ground my own myth in a starting place. The first step I took was thinking about whether I wanted my myth to fall in one of the categories we learned about (feminine divine, creation, sacred places, etc.). I decided to go with a contemporary take on a myth. Writing the myth has enhanced my study of myths by giving me the perspective of “myth creator.” I think the only difference is that the myths we studied were created/written under a different context. Older/ancient myths were created to answer questions that humans didn’t know the answer to. However, that did not make this experience any less significant. From this experience, I’ve learned that it can be a challenge to ask students to write a genre they are unfamiliar with. So it is crucial to provide them with enough support and background context for them to draw models to work from. If we had not been able to study myths before hand, it would have been even more difficult to come up with ideas. I also learned that creative writing, which some teachers are reluctant to include in their curriculum, is very useful and can enhance the study of more traditional forms of literature.

Writing About Poetry vs. Writing Poetry

I had a great experience both writing poetry and writing about poetry. These two processes are similar in that they require the writer to have some general knowledge of poetic elements such as form and imagery. To explicate a poem, the writer must be able to choose specific elements, such as form and diction, to inform the analysis of the poem. Writing a poem also requires that the poet be aware of the formal elements of poetry that will be a part of their piece. For example, when writing a poem, a writer should be thinking about how form will affect meaning and vice versa. Writing about poetry helped my poetry writing in two ways. One, it allowed me to be aware of the various aspects that make a poem interesting and lively- playing with form, punctuation, diction, etc. And two, in choosing a poem that I enjoyed to explicate, I was able to study a model of poetry and utilize it in writing my own poetry. In the same respect, writing poetry gives a writer a sense of the time, effort, and thought that goes into a piece. This allows a writer to more carefully break down a poem in an explication. From this experience, I learned that it is possible to use both formal writing and creative writing to use poetry. In the past, I’ve met teachers who view poetry writing or creative writing as a “tacked-on” writing exercise that comes in second to teaching formal writing. However, by doing both, I’ve been able to see that formal and creative writing enhance one another.