"Creativity and Collaboration: The Relationship of Fact and Fiction in Personal Writing"
Download PDF About the AuthorRachel Casey is an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Central Florida. Her academic interests include the analyses of rhetorics involved in critical thinking, civic engagement, and feminist theory. Contents |
The StoryEver since I can remember, I have been an avid reader, for as an inconceivably shy child, I found adventure hidden within the pages of my favorite storybooks. Books and stories served as the foundation upon which I grew; the fantastical realities tucked between two covers served as the places to which I escaped when I felt insecure or lost within my own world. Those colorful worlds jumping out at me from the lines of printed black and white text showed me a whole other life I could never have fathomed, and as all those newly discovered ideas, characters, and places found a home inside my mind, I found myself drawn to the clean, unadulterated pages of my notebook. It was in elementary school that I wrote my first story, titled “I Am Magic.” I was seven years old and had recently read and become slightly obsessed with the Harry Potter series. My ten-page “I Am Magic” story I had considered to be a fully original production and something my creative mind had, almost magically, originated; however, in reality, it closely adhered to the main themes present within J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (see Appendix A). In fact, looking back now, I can see that the plot of my “original story” read as almost identical to that of Harry Potter. Being that I was only seven, this imitation without realization is not an act unique to me, but the similarly structured plot does document the beginning of my tendency to draw inspiration from works read, an unacknowledged collaboration. At seven years old, through reading and immersing myself in others’ worlds, I had discovered a concept—wizardry—that I loved and wanted to make my own, and in addition to the reworking of this wizarding world, I too drew in experiences and people from my actual life in order to bring this magic I so loved closer to myself. The protagonist of my story was “a boy named Reid” who, at the time, happened to be my best friend. (A few years down the line, I would place Reid as the hero of my story once again—this time in a copy of Rick Riordan’s The Lightening Thief.) Reid, the powerful wizard boy in my story, did not solely bear relation in name; rather, while I wrote—and even re-reading now—Reid shares my friend’s seven-year-old appearance. I took someone I loved and made him the center of my fictional world. Following suit, the started sequel to my original “I Am Magic” story also draws elements from my personal life to place in the context of my fantasy world (see Appendix B). In the unfinished sequel, wizard boy Reid goes to his “grandparent’s [sic] house,” one complete with a pool. Although it may not seem like much, reading this story now, I can vividly picture the setting in which now eight-year-old Rachel had intended Reid to find himself: a screened-in backyard pool, the set-up of my aunt and uncle’s house at which I had attended a pool party earlier that year. For me, this act of writing, introducing elements of my reality to a wizarding world of which I so wished to be a part, presented itself as much more real than just running around in my Halloween Gryffindor robe; I created a tangible world, one easy to picture because it contained elements with which I was familiar. As a child with little experience in the world—seven years to be exact—my scope of reference was incredibly limited. Thus, I used the elements of my life with which I was most familiar: my books and my friends. I acted creatively through the reconstruction of reality, by combining different experiences to create something new. This act of inserting myself and my surroundings into J.K. Rowling’s crafted wizarding world exemplifies AIIM’s conceptual elements of mediation and reflection. I not only sought a “middle point” between Rowling’s magical landscape and my personal reality, but I also participated actively in “think[ing] and . . . consider[ing] alternatives” to my own situation. Further, my elementary school story directly contributes to Rebecca Moore Howard’s view on collaborative pedagogy. When working with others, or in my case, when working with others’ ideas, greater knowledge is gained. My seven-year-old self did not know much about the world, but through exposure via reading and general life experiences, she was able to learn, synthesize, and create. My seven-year-old self would not have been capable of constructing her magical landscape without the implicit help of her friends and favorite author. In these ways, I participated in collaboration, my experiences and interactions working together to create something new: my “I Am Magic” stories. |