English 2010
Three Part Creative Exploration
This is a small, three-part collection of fictitious stories created in my English 2010 class, “Creative Writing: Fiction,” during Autumn Quarter 2024. This class was especially enriching and has definitely stuck with me. Throughout the course, we explored creative writing through a perceptive, multifaceted lens, paying close attention to the environments around us. Our guiding questions were: “In what ways is language entwined with time, body, and space?” and “How do we care for the worlds around us through the act of writing?” These questions really spoke to me because they asked me to examine reality through a more conceptual lens and create something tangible from it. I came to appreciate language as both a tool and an art form: it allows us to express ourselves, understand the world, and make sense of our place within it.
In this collection, I aimed to let my creativity take flight while examining three very different topics: something I am interested in (city design), something I would not normally think to write about (a time machine), and something seemingly mundane (a walk). I wanted to pay special attention to small details and approach each piece almost like a set design. What small bits matter most? What stands out to me? How can I make those details stand out to an audience?
Additionally, all of these pieces are rooted in different regions of reality. “Touring on Foot” is based in our everyday world: I went on a walk and documented it. Simple, yet deeply reflective: This piece offers a glimpse into other people’s realities, as well as how I perceive them and imagine they perceive the world around them. “A Time Machine” explores how living in the moment can slow down our perception of reality. In this piece, time becomes something we recognize, stretch, and play with. Lastly, “A City” moves into full fantasy. I wish a city like this existed, and perhaps it does somewhere, but ultimately, the reader enters a new reality through the piece. I think it is fun to play with reality in this way because it allows writing to become more than observation; it becomes a space where memory, imagination, and possibility can all exist at once.
Touring on Foot
I started my walk at 5:34, just as the sun began its descent, knowing that in about 30 minutes, the sky would be painted in stunning shades of orange and pink. I curated my own playlist for this walk, consisting of songs by Peach Pit, The Backseat Lovers, Caamp, and other similar artists. I walked down the alley behind my house. This alley isn’t the cleanest one by any means (but what ally is?), but I appreciate all of the interesting items that find their way there; a mattress propped up against a fence, a well-loved Barbie doll now in the dirt, or crushed red-solo cups from a party the night before. Each item tells its own story, its own history if one takes the time to listen. I continued walking across the DU campus, passing Evans St. Each person in each car was eyeing me down as I made my journey across the four lane road. Here I saw a light blue Toyota minivan, the driver being an elderly man. I like to think that he’s on his way to the grocery store, maybe to buy flowers for his wife. I saw a red Mazda, filled to the brim with bouncing children and a tired mother behind the wheel. Maybe they’re going to the new Transformers movie and fill their bellies with popcorn, while the mother just wants a moment of peace. I continued my walk to the Harvard Gulch, a tiny stream that flows through a park and by a willow tree. I took a second or two to study this willow tree, its branches drooping underneath the setting sun. Maybe I'll have a picnic here before the weather gets too cold.
A Time Machine
Most time machines push the user forward or backward within space or time. This time machine doesn't move you anywhere or put you in the future or past. This time machine instead keeps you right where you are, but if used correctly, it can slow down time. It forces the user to breathe in the space around them, observe each and every detail within the setting; the way the light shines through the tree leaves, the way the bees fight off the wasps, the way your cat mews for another bowl of food. We are all already equipped with the necessary tools to operate such a device, and sometimes, most times, the device isn't even necessary for the time travel itself. One must simply take the time in order to experience the time; draw in the golden air into your lungs and feel it come out in a shimmering light, hear the birds sing their songs, look at the color of their eyes through your eyes. This is time travel, time bending. This time travel allows for the hours to pass with purpose. Understand the slowness of the minute and gulp up the rich seconds. You are frozen in this moment for a reason, do not let it go to waste.
The City
The city of Odril was always bustling, no matter the time of day. This city slept for no one. Merchants shouted at you as you walked down the narrow cobblestone roads, each vendor having something new and exciting to offer; excotic frogs and beetles one might use to cook in a brew, feathers from an angel wing that would grant you eternal luck, or potions that offered powers of flight or fire breath. The buildings were made of tinted glass, each one a different color, each door a mosaic depicting the story of the family's history. Sometimes the city smelled of lavender and vanilla, particularly in the tea district, and sometimes it smelled of gunpowder and burning wood, particularly in the weaponry district. The large white castle sprouted out of the heart of the city, so every resident might witness its greatness no matter what district they found themselves in. The castle was constructed from a single block of marble, likely weighing several millions of tons. Some say that there used to be a mountain range where the castle now stands, and early engineers simply chipped away at that marble mountain to reveal the castle, as if it had been hiding in there all along.