"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 MagazineExtending upon this concept of collaboration is the construction of my own magazine. While visiting our nana’s house in 2011, my younger sister Megan and I decided to start our own magazines. Following along the same lines as my first short story, which copied the plot of Harry Potter, my magazine “company” was titled Girlz (based on the magazine Discovery Girls, to which I subscribed and read religiously). My writing, no matter the genre, found its start in existing publications. To complete one single issue of Girlz, it took days, working non-stop from breakfast to dinner as I served as my magazine’s lead reporter and design specialist as well as the whole of its board of directors, and upon finishing, my sister and I were enthralled when our nana “believed” our first pencil-drawn editions to be legitimate publications. I wrote articles giving advice on real-life problems; I wrote stories by “real girls” who shared experiences either through which I had previously gone or through which I wished to go. These structural elements were taken directly from the pages of Discovery Girls; however, the content was changed to match my life and fantasies. Instead of cutting and pasting pictures from other magazines or catalogues, I illustrated Girlz by hand (see Appendix C). Through drawing my own accompanying images, I was able to control more precisely the aspects of my magazine, including the clothes and style of my magazine’s “featured subscribers” and cover model. Resulting from this control, I designed and implemented what I considered to be the trends of the time. (Clearly, headbands and chokers were, in my eyes, the peak of 2011 fashion.) Essentially, I took the structure of my favorite magazine, Discovery Girls, and reworked the content to match my personal style. Being that the composition of these Girlz magazines was my first and only experience with the magazine genre, I followed a pattern of familiarity in order to “get it right.” Everything inside my magazine, while differing in story content and quiz topic, followed the general structure of my favorite publication. The work I put into my magazines—from the combination of words and pictures to the development of new themes and fictional people—was undoubtedly creative; however, the general structure of my creation drew heavily from an existing source. This outside contribution did not negate my originality; rather, it served as an avenue through which I could enhance my creativity. Without the example provided through Discovery Girls, I would not have the base knowledge needed for magazine composition; without the preexisting format, I would not have the foundation upon which I could add my own ideas. My sister’s and my interactions with Discovery Girls and the magazine genre as a whole display the conceptual elements of awareness as we “[became] part of a working entity,” the magazine corporate world (AIIM). Despite the fact that, in reality, we kept our stories to ourselves, we imagined them distributed across the country and read by people just like ourselves. We participated in collaboration, viewing ourselves as producers for the wider public. The writing and illustrating I did of my own magazines at eleven serve as prime examples of collaborative creativity and further support Ranker’s and Dyson’s theories of writing as a social process. Because of collaboration between Discovery Girls and myself, I possessed the means to act creatively. Further, within my magazines’ quizzes, I now observe an attempt at self-justification (see Appendix D). In addition to showcasing my own dated fashion trends, these hand-drawn magazines provide insight into my self-consciousness. At 11 years old, I was not allowed to wear makeup, nor had I ever touched it with the exception of my annual dance recital. Thus, at the time and in my mind, makeup (as included in quiz question 1) was linked directly with elaborate decoration and special occasion. Nonetheless, I remember fifth grade as the year girls in my class had begun to wear mascara and the occasional lipstick or eyeshadow to school, something for which my mother still considered me too young. Also, although Justice brand clothing and word-printed shorts were a huge fashion trend amongst elementary and middle school girls in 2011, my mother would not buy me shorts with words printed across the back (as included in quiz question 2) despite my desire to “be cool” and own a pair. Lastly, question 3 addresses preferred hair style; my hair did not (and still will not) hold a curl for more than five minutes. The fact that my hair was “so boring” frustrated me. Looking at pictures of myself from these years of my life, along with the memories I have, I can clearly see that I wrote this quiz with myself in the middle, “mostly Bs” category, the only quiz resolution where the explanation does not end in critique. In addition to providing a creative outlet and the opportunity to explore a different genre of composition, writing and illustrating my own magazines allowed me to reconcile my own feelings and perceived shortcomings, justifying myself as “normal” and “middle-ground.” Thus, the quizzes also show to be social through the communication and presentation of my opinions and feelings. The magazines served as a collaborative production, both in motivation from an existing publication and reflection on my lived experiences. |