Hi everyone, I'm Chris, a chemistry-environmental studies major (undeclared) with an intended mathematics minor. I grew up in Lake Pleasant, a small town in the Adirondacks (upstate NY, south east of canton). I love swimming and kayaking in the lake by my house and hiking in the local forests and mountains. I got very interested in ceramics in the past five years, but found little time to continue my work with clay since joining the SLU community. I am currently working on a project to decorate The Hub, my theme house, and beading in my free time. I love outdoors and artsyness.

In the past, I have found that people either love or hate my fictional writings and have difficulties leaving their personal biases out of their comments. Thus many comments I have previously received were only partially helpful and most different sources would counter the first. Overall, I have become a bit put-off by peer editing as a result. My writing has been influenced by many people/factors, but most significantly by authors I have read for fun. William Goldman has greatly influenced my ideas on displaying fiction as fact and influenced some of my more creative writing styles, such as my Arthurian tale. George Elliot, or Mary Anne Evans, although a wonderful writer of her time, is an author I try not to emulate, as I find her stories too dry and her descriptions overly excessive. Many modern (Terry Goodkind, Brad Meltzer, David Baldacci, John Grisham) and older authors (J.R.R. Tolkien, Bill Shakespeare, Sophocles) have also influenced me greatly through their varying contents and presentations.

Throughout my many literary travels, I have discovered one great truth; there is no such thing as “good writing.” There is poor writing, dull writing, creative writing, engaging writing, sophisticated writing, interesting writing, and even accomplished writing, but there is no “good writing.” Some writings you either like or you don’t, but most of the time it’s somewhere in the middle. Every written work has some good points and some bad, but judging any piece is totally objective. I think better works are not repetitive, catch you in the first few lines, remain gripping, are not drawn out or predictable, and are overall just interesting.

I hope to better understand other people’s intentions and methods of writing fiction as well as improve upon my own by the end of this course. My current level of writing is sporadic; I go from well-done to totally dull as I switch my topics. I would like to increase my ability so that I don’t have to write an Arthurian legend every time I wan my work to be a hit. Thank you all for you patience and help as I work towards my goal.