Like a lot of people I've met in the blogisphere, I want to be a writer someday. My absolute dream is to be published, and while I have already technically written a book for NaNoWriMo, it is nowhere near where I want my writing to be. However, I have just started my creative writing class at uni, and have started writing again after over a year. Here's what I've been up to:
So in order to get into my creative writing program which starts next year, I have to submit a portfolio. I'm pretty nervous because I don't really have a backup plan if I don't get in. For my portfolio, I have submitted 10 pages of writing from various stories. I'm really excited about them and wanted to share what they're about.
My first story is a 2-page long excerpt from a potential YA fantasy that I worked on a lot a year ago, but kinda lost touch of. It's about a girl named Ely, a fortune teller who lives under a tyrannical monarchy and must go undercover in the palace in order to kill the ruthless king. It is probably my most developed story, I have 16 pages already written along with storyboards and even a query letter, because when the time comes, I would really love to finish and submit it to an agent.
My second piece is a character portrait of the ruthless king Kyle from the story above. I think he is the character I have the most clear picture of in my mind and I really love writing him. He's a terrible person, but he's also broken inside and really needs to be shown some sort of love.
My third is something completely different, it's an introduction to a dystopia about all the world being condensed into a single country. Basically, there has been only one survivor of each country in the world after the apocalypse, and so they all band together onto one piece of land and have to learn to cooperate. I don't think this story will go anywhere but it was fun to write nonetheless.
I finally got around to writing an ancient history retelling! This is about a girl who is trapped under the rubble of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in Pompeii. She recounts memories of her past life before the eruption and tries to make her way out of the rubble. I know there were no survivors of the eruption, but I wanted to have a little fun with a "what if?"
The last piece I've submitted is a short story about a woman driving to work in heavy downtown traffic and she talks about her anxieties about driving and ponders how fast moving society is nowadays. This was by far my favourite piece to submit because it has a plot twist in the end, and I have never written a plot twist before. I also don't really write short stories so it was a good change.
That's all that's in my creative writing portfolio! If all goes well, maybe I'll share some of the pieces I submitted later on, because I do feel like I need to be more open with sharing my writing.
Have you ever had to submit a writing portfolio? Do you have any tips?
Emily @ Paperback Princess
