Abstract:
Throughout the process of producing this creative project - writing about becoming and being a writer - I am able to look back and reexamine the books I read, the people I met, and the things that happened to me, and contextualize my experiences within my identity as a writer. The "construction" of my identity is something I want to demonstrate to be just that - a construction. While my project is nonfiction, I am actively aware and want my readers to be aware as well that through lyrical language, suggestive imagery and the almost constant presence of literary influences, the "self' I am portraying is created and not perfectly recollected and reproduced. Through the very act of writing, which is not only the method in which I relate my story, but the central theme of my story itself, I recreate myself to the best of my ability to reflect the journey I have taken to my identity of self-as-writer .... However, verisimilitude and a completely accurate reproduction of my life lived while becoming a writer is not my goal, nor do I think it is possible. Rather, I structure this creative project to impart a sense of what I feel those memories have done to me as a writer and the style in which I convey those memories also reflects my literary influences.
