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[liliesandghosts]

Introduction: Old Beginnings

As one grows older, there are so few things that remain consistent throughout a life. For me, however, one of the things that has always been by my side is reading and writing. Technology has helped shape this, giving me access to all kinds of creative outlets and ideas that have shaped my works as a writer and allowed me to explore just what literacy means to me. In this project, I’ll explore how that relationship between technology and literacy has changed as I’ve grown up, as well as how technologies such as reading and writing have allowed me to grow as a person and as a writer. Each section will be named after a piece of writing I have made around that time.

Photo Credit: Heiko Hellwig: Silicon Cities (2017)

[liliesandghosts]

Childhood: The Tree

Even from when I was a child, I was always someone who leaned towards different kinds of artistic mediums in order to express my desire to create. As a kid, reading was an essential part of my life. I would pore over all kinds of novels, searching for ones that I could truly connect with. In a budding technological world, though, there were many different ways for me to find a sense of self and a sense of understanding through literature and the other alternatives offered. With all of the reading I was doing, particularly in relation to the novels I truly connected with, I would come up with my own characters and stories inspired by the ideas I was interacting with. In worlds containing clans of cats or dystopian warfare, I would find potential for something more expertly woven into these stories. As the spaces across the internet began to blossom, I too embraced the areas that I could identify with. I would search online for more stories, whether inspired or similar to others, and particularly delving into forums or areas online that catered to a specific audience: those who explored worlds given to us by the authors and writers of the time. My age, as well as the quality of the internet, hindered my experience at the time, as I was unable to explore different communities or interact with certain people, but that changed as I continued to grow.

Photo Credit: Me

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Adolescence: I'm Too Broken to Be Fixed

As I became older, the internet continued to expand by my side. I was more involved, talking with others and finding different forms of literature–and other creations–to explore. English had always been my favorite subject to study, and over time, I realized that I was actually pretty good at it. Each year, my English classes would have creative writing assignments, and I found that I was motivated the most when these were the works we were presented with. In middle school, I found that more than ever, writing was an ever growing, ever present passion of mine. I became involved in programs like Battle of the Books, a district-wide competition where students would read twelve books and compete in a trivia showdown against the other students who made it to the finals. I also went to an arts-based middle school, leading to me making more friends that could be deemed “weird” and delving into fanspaces more than I had in the past. I began to explore fanfiction, both reading and writing it, and I found a new community that both embraced my creations and challenged me to make something better. I started out with Wattpad, amassing views and plenty of comments that motivated me to continue creating something, eventually turning more to Ao3 and instead making my own characters and situations that existed outside of fan content. I would roleplay with friends, talking as our characters and making long, detailed stories that far surpassed that of what I had made before. We would work individually and collaboratively, making our own little worlds designed just for us. I began to understand the why and how of character motivations instead of just taking it in.

Photo Credit: Me

[liliesandghosts]

Teenage Years: Out of Your System?

Once I started high school, I continued on with making original characters. I had an art account online where I would share both my fan creations and original creations, often straying away from posting my writing. It was personal for me, and even when I sent it away for friends to read, the insecurity and lack of confidence I felt as a teen was present in my writing and my urge to keep each creation to myself. Still, I continued to create, often collaborating with different friends when making original characters or focusing on other kinds of writing. High school had us delve deeper into the creative side of writing, and I found another source of inspiration; poetry. I had always enjoyed reading poetry, but eventually found that I also had a good time writing it. I found that technology, reading, and research fed into my motivation as a writer, and I continued to make things even with the anxiety I experienced when showing others my writing. Still, the anonymity of online spaces gave me a nice barrier to both get feedback on my fanworks and get an idea of what other people I was involved with enjoyed.

Photo Credit: Me

[liliesandghosts]

Quarantine: Moon Drunk Princess

When quarantine began in 2020, I found that my creative juices were flowing even more than usual. With nothing to do, I got more involved online with fan content, often writing fanfiction just for myself, exploring different styles of writing and different pieces that felt more personal than ever before. I looked at more mediums of writing, such as scripts and short stories, finding more online outlets that helped me to explore different sides of myself. This led me to applying to UCF and majoring in Creative Writing. With the possibility of pursuing a topic of interest that I found both motivating and enjoyable, I was motivated to keep creating even when facing a world that may not have been welcoming to what I wanted to offer.

Photo Credit: Me

[liliesandghosts]

Adulthood: Aeternus

When I first began my college career here at UCF, I found that all of my classes, at least for the first semester, weren’t creative writing based. Instead, I had to take gen-ed courses along with one English Composition course. I let out my creativity through this course, exploring a project on digital literacies and online communities. Once I began my second semester and entered my sophomore year, however, I found that the creative writing courses I took were the best classes I had taken. The online connections I had with professors were more substantial than my connections from before, and the feedback I received on my writing motivated me. My junior year was my most creative, though, as I took a Writing for Video Games course along with an Intro to Screenwriting course. These two classes allowed me to create something of substance that mattered to me. I received feedback from my classmates and my professors, as well as working on group creative projects that brought out the best in all of us. I found that these connections really helped me to understand both my writing and literacy as a whole, allowing me to become a better writer and a better thinker overall. In the second semester of my junior year, I had an independent study for creative writing along with an Advanced Screenwriting course. My independent study allowed me to create another game document along with a script that ended up being about 100 pages with 25,000 words overall, one of my most ambitious projects to date. This and the creation of a TV pilot allowed me to hone in my practical writing skills. I am also a writing and rhetoric minor, which has allowed me to focus on the technical side of writing and how it works, as well as the different understandings of literacies that we are allowed through different theoretical approaches and styles of thinking. This has impacted me significantly, as I am pursuing several creative projects with friends, and I would not be able to do so without my understanding of theory, characterization, and literacy that I have honed through every step of my life.

Photo Credit: Me

[liliesandghosts]

Future: New Beginnings

Overall, I have found that my experience with writing has been shaped by my relationship to technology through fan and personal creations, giving me an outlet and understanding of literacy that I would not have without the technical and theoretical exploration of what it means to create. My improvement as a writer and my connection to literacy as a whole is essential to who I am as both a creative writing major and as someone who plans to pursue a career in this vein once I graduate. Before then, I would like to look more into ways of publishing my work, whether online or in a physical piece, but I am hoping to get my name out there using different forms of technology that I am now able to access. Other changes in my use of technology have shaped me as a writer, such as reading pieces online and making sure to understand the technique behind writing. My recent personal and fan writing projects have also allowed me to create connections with others and myself. I hope to develop my relationship to literacy and technology even more through this course and my other studies in the future.

Photo Credit: Heiko Hellwig: Silicon Cities (2017)