Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of Jenna Gravino
My personal mission as I’ve come to the end of my college career, and as I strive towards becoming a professional writer, is to practice being an honest writer. I have spent copious amounts of time writing for others, satisfying criteria, checking things off a list of what to include and not to include, basically putting my words into a tightly wrapped box, pretty bow and all.
Over the summer I took Expository Writing with Dr. Fred Ulrich. It was my first chance in a long time to just write. There were no guidelines, no instructions, and it was kind of scary. I wasn’t expecting to be left with my own devices. It was like all this time my professors had been stringing me along and all of a sudden, THUMP! I’m flat on my ass not knowing up from down, left from right, right from wrong.
That got me here, to Advanced Composition, to my last semester at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. I wanted to do more writing. I wanted to write from me, to interpret things I encountered, things I was experiencing, things that came to me on a whim. I wanted those things, but I wasn’t necessarily able to do this in the beginning. Hence the emergence of "Unit One." Nobody was setting the boundaries for me anymore, but I was still trying to set them for myself.
As you can imagine, this severely hindered the creative process and I felt I was caving under the pressure. Thank heavens for classmates! After talking with Trina, Andrew, Lauren, Kelsey, Lindsey, and others, I knew I wasn't alone. In one way or another, this inspired me to just write. And I did. And I liked it. Things were coming together- convergence! I had a purpose. I faced everything with the question, "Could I write about this?" I was able to channel all kinds of creative energy- from my dreams, my memories, my migraines, my birthday, exhaustion, and a little bit of mushroom jazz.
The truth is, I found myself inspired by this course. One thing that contributed to the evolution of my own compositional process was listening to others talk about theirs during the in-class workshops. Specifically, I remember the first group peer review of Kelsey's Vegas piece. Step by step we were able to edit and rework her piece as a class with the specific goal of polishing it into something that was worthy of publication in a food/travel magazine. Several students were brave enough to open up personally about the inspiration for some of their pieces; Megan's workshop on an emerging creative nonfiction piece comes to mind, as well as our discussion with Lauren about the possibilities/complications of writing from memory (something I truly admire- I would have never been able to do it). We started working together more diligently as a class and found support from one another during the process.
Towards the end of the semester, I returned to thinking about a "final project," whatever that meant. How was I going to compose a final piece that would represent everything I've put into this course? I contemplated removing my work from the wiki, putting it in some other space, but it just didn't feel right. Ultimately, I proposed to compile a portfolio of several pieces of writing that had emerged over the course of the semester. My classmates were my primary audience when I composed most of these pieces, but with the addition of this reflection, I hope that anyone who comes across my portfolio will be able to understand its origins and follow the evolution of my writing process.
The compilation of pieces that you'll find below is at your disposal. It remains here on the wiki, where it emerged, for all to discover, enjoy, criticize, transform, remix, or ignore if you see fit.
I am in a state of transformation- as a person, and as a writer. I think. I write. I reflect. I create. It is frustrating, emotional, perpetual, illuminating- a journey.
"Unit One"
Who are you (Jenna Gravino)
Gravino Composition
Gravino About the Interview
What Was I Thinking?
Gravino August 31st Reflection
Gravino September 7th Reflection
Gravino September 14th Reflection
Gravino October Reflection
Letter to Family Saga
Letter to Family Part I
Letter to Family Part II
Letter to Family Part III
Creative Nonfiction
Losing Your Mind Can Be Funny
Killer
Exhaustion
Mushroom Jazz
My Grain
Today I'm 23
For My Sister
Comments (3)
kms said
at 3:41 pm on Dec 10, 2010
Jenna - First, congrats on graduation!! I enjoyed reading your writings. I agree; I, too, sometimes want to remove all the 'crap' writing during process and leave a portfolio of a couple of snapshots of writing. However, the class was also about process, so yes, we can let people review our crazy process as we thought and wrote, or didn't think . . . and wrote. LOL. Keep us posted on your au pair situation in France. All the best to you! Oh, and thanks for giving me a link! <3 Trina
shawn dudley said
at 5:56 pm on Dec 10, 2010
Kudos on graduating Jenna. I enjoyed your writing. Good luck in the future.
jlgravin said
at 3:24 pm on Dec 11, 2010
Thank you both! :)
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