Cassie's Bold Writing

I used to write very consistently and boldly in my journal. It was such a great way for me to sort through things. I have not done that in a really long time and as I did this assignment I kind of realized why I stopped doing it, but also why I need to challenge myself to resume.

It can be really scary to wade into thoughts that I'd rather ignore without an expectation of figuring out those questions. But that is also very freeing. It's a wonderful thing to not have to search for if I'm saying something wrong (that would be misunderstood, or that I'll change my mind about, or that is hyperbolic, etc.) and just be able to say what I feel as I feel it. I thought this would feel more like opening a wound, and it did for a time, but I did actually find some clarity as well. As I was writing, I realized that there was an apology that I never gave someone who I owed it and I saw a little clearer how I had hurt them. Apologizing actually drastically improved our relationship in just a couple of days. I was not expecting that, and I don't expect that from future bold writing. But I think I have more confidence in my perspective as I write now and in the clarity being totally authentic without expectation can allow. 

Cameron's Bold Writing Blog Reflection

My attempt at “bold writing,” was not literary as it too involved a sequence of questions. I appreciated the fact that I didn’t have to worry about an audience when writing, defining terms unknown to an audience, expounding on ideas that I’ve been mulling over for months, etc. It felt good to write freely, but as I did so, I found my mind slowly wandered to deeper, almost scarier issues and questions that I didn’t know I have been struggling with. It’s interesting that the Church, which has become such an integral part of my identity, makes it difficult to question discrepancies within the religion even through a lens of faith. Perhaps, I complained a little too much at the beginning, however, I’m grateful that this assignment had a 1000-word minimum limit. Having a goal to write more helped stretch my vocabulary, ideas, and restitutions. Though this journal entry sparked questions, I can’t say that writing a 1500-word journal entry has allowed me to sort through all struggles with the particular issue, but it has helped me reflect and re-center the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions that were prevalent. For me, I think that finding some type of restitution was crucial, to keep writing, not just to list the issues at hand, but to look at things from an alternative perspective. Keeping an open mind, of course, enhanced my understanding of the issue.

Julie's Bold Essay

Writing my private bold essay was a relief for me. It gave me a chance to wrestle with some of the doubts and worries that I have about the future, and gave me permission to not feel guilty about having some of these doubts. As I wrote this down I thought about the recurring theme in life that you won’t solve your problems unless you have the courage to face them head-on. It is essential to give validity to your feelings, to not dismiss them as stupid or something that will just fade away. Writing them down is a great way to do that. If you’re not willing to take the time to address those feelings, you won’t acknowledge them and resolve to tackle them head-on.

Maybe that’s why feelings can be an abyss, something dark and scary to enter. In this exercise I learned about my own tendency to push some of my darker fears/feelings away in hopes that they will go away. But at the same time I learned about the courage that writing--not just writing, but writing with authenticity and honesty--gives me to face those feelings.

Siera's Bold Essaying

In my personal essay I focused on trying to write through one of the paradoxes that exists in my life right now. Writing out my thoughts and feeling about things is not a new thing for me. It really helps me process my thoughts. This time in particular I felt like it allowed me to untangled my thoughts and view them side by side. What I thought was paradox, became a lot more connected as I looked at them in this way. I felt like I could reconcile a lot more of it. I still have questions, but now I feel like I have an idea of what to look at in order to find answers. I didn’t feel like it was hard to be bold in my writing. One thing I do find myself doing though, is sometimes I try to resolve my issues to quickly. I don’t allow myself enough time and space to reside within the problem.

Henry's Bold Essay

This was my first experience ever doing this sort of writing. Even in my own journal I never really write boldly in a way that ignores structure and themes. In the writing process, I didn’t once look back and proof read or organize my ideas. Any idea that came to my mind that I felt strongly enough about to write about, I just wrote about it for as long as I needed to. It felt surprisingly good to express concerns and ideas that have been on my mind for months and years. As I was writing I started to think about things that I realized I needed to write about. My biggest take away from this assignment is how positive I felt writing it. At the beginning I was expecting to sort of rant on paper and let a ton of stress out. As I was writing, however, I noticed I sort of put a positive spin on my ideas and seemed optimistic about the future. I saw this as an opportunity to grow and expand on feelings that I have and move forward in a hopeful way.

Dorothy Bold Writing

Bold writing has been something that I have practiced since my time as a missionary. My bold writing now, obviously, differs from what it once was but it still remains a place for me to sort my thoughts and reflect on what is truly important to me. Bold writing does not always take the same form or structure, but often it is a list of questions that I write as fast as my pen will allow. Once I have a list of about a dozen questions, I realize a consistent theme and how this pertains to what is on my mind. Some of the topics in my bold writing I would feel comfortable to share and discuss, but others are still thoughts being developed. As I did the assignment for this bold writing, I felt impressed with how writing functions as an outlet for creativity and frustration. I had multiple ideas swarming in my mind, some positive and promising, others took a more negative tone. Bold writing allows a writer to take their thoughts directly from their mind to paper, largely ignoring grammar principle and just writing, thus making it bold.

Marcus's Bold Essay Response

After writing boldly, I burnt my words. Or in this case erased them from my computer and existence. I am not one to explain myself completely and being able to do so in writing was a little daunting. There isn’t much I hold back, but when it came to my topic, I realized there is a lot more digging to do. My topic is nothing of scandalous occurrences, emotional strife, or spiritual revelations, but it is a complex story of my life within the confines of God’s plan and timing. There seems to be things I don’t understand, and based off of my last Blog post, timelines are the issue. While exploring the concept for writing boldly, lots of minor details about my life that I had seemed to be forgotten came back. My lifeline seems to have unexplainable knots tied into it and unraveling those knots gave me a less disheveled perspective of how I view myself. This was a good exercise to see clearly about what events I would like to include into my paper – giving clearer understanding for the readers. Hopefully, I will be able to portray everything needed about time, in due time.