This is a slightly edited, albeit early, version of the Project Proposal I made for the Creative Writing Project course I am taking this spring. The course is the equivalent of writing a BA Paper, but in Creative Writing.
If you’re curious about why I’m so obsessed with poetry this spring, this is why. While it wasn’t recommended to switch genre from the other courses to the project (I’ve taken Creative Writing I and Creative Writing II at Malmö University in the past), I argued that my circumstances are special, and that I find that poetry would best fit this project. My tutor instructed me to complement my studies with a crash-course in Poetry. Anyways. To the Project Proposal:
About one and a half years ago my grandmother passed away. About 10 years earlier she and I had begun a journey for me to write about her life. She suggested to me that I could use whatever stories she told me, and rebuild them, with my own creativity and make my own stories. She had always loved my story-telling.
After she died I spent a year wanting to write only things that were real, and exact, and a biography of her life. Then, I realized that there was an opportunity here to tell more stories than just my Grandmothers stories, while also telling hers.
After pondering, and reading other works, I landed on wanting to tell parts of her journey through poetry. And not just one type of poetry, but rather explore her life, while exploring poetry at the same time, and sharing stories that would’ve been untold otherwise. Each poem should stand on its own, while also being able to fit as a piece of a greater puzzle
This is the project I want to work on for this Creative Writing Project. Fictionalizing her life entirely did not feel right, but creating poetry out of it felt like the right way.
The goal will be to deliver a poem bi-weekly for publishing on a new website dedicated to that story [this part wont happen, explained why below], after a month starting off and preparing drafts and ideas and stories I want to find. I want to find stories by talking with more family members, to have them share a memory of her, and stories she’s told.
The end goal of this writing will be publishing a small collection titled “Farmor – Stories (un)told”
This draft was then revised, in order to fit the project proposal template. But there are a few things I want to add. Referring to poetry as stories may be misleading to some, but I believe that they always tell a story, give us a picture of something. Which is what I wish to do with this project.
Now, I want to remind everyone that since I am creating this for a course at University, and will get graded (and have it checked against urkund for plagiarism probably), I will not be posting any poetry here. Until after the course is complete, and even then I may end up with a separate website for it. I’m unsure at this point of time
Lastly, I have set up an account on the ‘verse specifically for talking about writing a little bit more. And if you want to follow me there, you’re welcome to.
This poem was not sponsored by my patrons, but it could be in the future. If you would like me to be able to write more of them, feel free to head over my patreon and check out the tiers there, $2 will hopefully eventually start sending poetry straight into your inbox! (it’s a process)
Alternatively, check out my support page for more info.