Creative Writing Commons^™

Character Driven Architecture: Authentic Characters In Imitation Worlds, Gabriayle Stapf

Masters Theses

This paper is an introduction to the manuscript of my creative writing thesis that includes my own impetus and background, my process for my writing, my vision for that creative fiction piece, what the literary context for my fiction writing is, and what I believe the meaning of being a Christian scholar amounts to. Various other authors’ works are referenced as inspiration and motivation for my creative works and desire for contributing to the field of literature.

It All Begins With A Dream, Eileen M. Riley

Undercurrents: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Composition

Eileen is an English major from a military family near Fort Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts. Her interest in vintage fashion led her to research representations of women in early 20th century advertisements for the Maidenform bra for her Composition II class. Impressed by the beautiful artwork she discovered in these depictions, Eileen was intrigued by the portrayals of women in roles that were traditionally held by men. Her essay explores how “these ads fed women’s desires for the gender norm dictates of that post-war time in America [and] went beyond these norms by depicting aspirational scenarios.” Eileen lives in Dorchester, …

A Close Look At The Function Of Slang, Ana Radonjic Sabbagh

Undercurrents: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Composition

Ana is an undecided major, born and raised in Boston to Serbian and Lebanese parents. Writing has always been a passion of Ana’s, and she created this research essay as a final project for her Composition II course. She notes that “it was a topic that became increasingly interesting the more I researched it. I was thoroughly surprised by the complex history and function of slang, and I gained a new perspective on the role of language in our daily lives.” Other than writing, Ana’s biggest passion is traveling, and she loves discovering new places, meeting people from all around …

Profanity And Perceptions, Elizabeth Lefrancois

Undercurrents: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Composition

Lizzie is an Exercise and Health Science major from Blackstone, Massachusetts. Assigned by her Composition II instructor to research an aspect of language that interested her, Lizzie chose to research swearing, which was never allowed in her home. Lizzie’s research enabled her to “open [her] eyes and see much more than a lack of vocabulary” when she heard others using profanity. She explains, “I felt as if I was programmed to think that swearing was this terrible thing that no one should do, and, because of that, I never thought about the positive side of this language.” Lizzie’s essay explores …

The Good Samaritan: The Role Of Religion In One's Morality, Kamla Javier

Undercurrents: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Composition

Kamla is an Economics major currently living in Boston, Massachusetts. Kamla’s essay, created for her Composition II course, began as an exploration of morality. She set out to examine the stereotypes against non-believers in order to better understand the development of the moral compass and the role religion plays in morality. She writes: “In this day and age where all kinds of people can freely express their opinion, both hurtful and helpful, I also wish to communicate my own beliefs through a logical presentation of information.” Kamla wanted to voice a position that is accepting of all people and “hopefully …

There And Back Again: A Writer's Tale, By A Repeat Student, Mark Ballou

Undercurrents: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Composition

Mark is an IT Major who lives in Boston, Massachusetts. Mark credits his parents for his life-long love of reading, and at a young age he loved writers, like J.R.R. Tolkien and R.A. Salvatore, who “in addition to having abbreviations for their first names, share an affinity for spending pages and pages describing the visuals in their books.” Mark is an Army veteran with nine years of service, and he has spent most of his adult life writing as a Counterintelligence Agent for the US Army, employing his meticulous style into his written work. In this essay for his Composition …

The Insights Of Literacy, Yasmim Alves Da Silva

Undercurrents: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Composition

No abstract provided.

So You Didn't Write The Next Great Novel (And How To Move Forward Knowing You Probably Won't), Adriana Stanzione

University Honors Theses

This thesis discusses the relationship between creative ambition and the paralyzing effects of perfectionism within the writing process. By analyzing this relationship via a lens on philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, and personal experience, it argues that the obligation and pressure to produce "good" work can often prevent sincerity and creative momentum. Divided into several sections, it also delves into ideas like inspiration and the revision process, tying in my own experiences with drafting my first manuscript, which resulted in years of writer's block and cynicism. The thesis also considers how cultural conditions contribute to creative stagnation, and deconstructs the concept of …

Landscape Repositories: Mapping Post-Mining Narratives In Asbestos, Qc Val-Des-Sources, Qc, Rasha Lama

Masters Theses

Landscape Repositories: Mapping Social Narratives in Asbestos, QC Val-des-Sources, QC proposes the ‘landscape repository’ as a tool for landscape literacy and cultural legitimacy that integrates histories, geographies, and social narratives to inform grounded and place-based post-mining futures.

Val-des-Sources, Québec (formerly Asbestos, QC) is a place whose extraction legacies and material histories are deeply interwoven into its contemporary economy and cultural landscape. The centre of town is the Jeffrey Mine, once the world’s largest open-pit asbestos mine that is deep enough to hide the Eiffel Tower entirely. Ceased in 2012, the 130-year-old Jeffrey Mine and sixty-one other Québec asbestos sites once …

Fanning The Flames: Incorporating Faith Into Fantasy, Rachel E. Noonan

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the integration of Christian themes into fantasy literature through critical analysis and original creative work. The critical component traces the tradition of Christian fantasy from Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene to C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, arguing that faith achieves its greatest literary impact when woven organically into character and world-building rather than imposed upon the narrative. Contemporary novels by Shannon Dittemore and Chuck Black illustrate the dangers of didacticism and shallow characterization. The creative manuscript, Fanning the Flames, applies these principles through Kian Sai, a young conscript navigating an authoritarian military …

Belmont Literary Journal Launch Event, Jason J. Riley Iv, Audrey Blake, Darwin Canales, Claire Carrillo, Abigail Coe, James Derryberry, Istbra Elmi, Bevan Johnson, Ava Lange, Keira Naab, Bailey Passarelli, Ava Rowland, Leticia Schueth, Samuel Shepley, Margaret Simpkins, Owen Tarro

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Join the Belmont Literary Journal in celebrating the launch of their online publication! This presentation will include insights from the journal’s staff, selected readings from the poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction categories, refreshments, and time to connect with Belmont’s diverse creative community.

Carnets De Bord. Tables D’Orientation « Tariq Teguia », Pascale Cassagnau, Tariq Teguia

Regards

This interview by Pascale Cassagnau with Tariq Teguia puts into perspective the Algerian filmmaker’s work notebooks, which are both autonomous objects and working documents, linked to the film itself. A medium for thought, the notebook is a space for language, a score and a cartographic space that gives shape to the writing of the film in a graphic way. A discursive space parallel to the space of scriptwriting, the notebook accompanies the development of the film from its inception, collecting the writing of thought in no particular chronological order.

Résumé
Cet entretien de Pascale Cassagnau avec Tariq Teguia met en …

The Gravedigger, Arielle Soukal

Honors Projects

A city of old brick buildings, rich history, and winding waterways.

Welcome to Soli.

In the city center lies a crescent-shaped island that houses a park hiding more than just a body. When a pregnant Dryad is found on the forest floor looking as though she belonged on an autopsy table, Sentinel Ashwyn Nyx is called onto the scene by the local Warden. Piecing together her death with the assistance of the Warden's team of young Officers, Ashwyn vows to see the end of the case and bring peace to the woman's family. But things aren't as they seem, as …

Érase Una Vez En Tiempos Modernos… Colección De Relatos Reimaginados, Jose Rolando Rivera Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Esta tesis examina la reimaginación narrativa de cuentos de hadas en diálogo con leyendas urbanas, situados en países hispanohablantes y en contextos históricos específicos, como una metodología crítica capaz de transformar paradigmas culturales, visibilizar voces marginales y cuestionar estructuras hegemónicas. Desde un enfoque interdisciplinario que integra estudios culturales, psicología narrativa y teoría decolonial, se propone entender las historias como sistemas vivos que modelan identidades y configuran memorias colectivas.

La reimaginación se plantea como una forma de intervenir estratégicamente en los relatos heredados mediante operaciones como la deconstrucción, la excavación psicológica y la reubicación cultural. El estudio aborda, además, subgéneros del …

Why Christians Should Read And Write Science Fiction An Examination Of The Benefits Of Using Science Fiction To Spread The Gospel, Matthew Ryan Tompkins

Masters Theses

Science fiction is a form of literature that faces many objections from the church that many people may not be aware. Many Christians assume that science fiction is about worlds and technologies that challenge the nature of God’s creation. This assumption is largely because these opposing Christians have neither read or written science fiction. What this Christian opposition doesn’t realize is that whether it be movies, books or television, science fiction continues to grow in popularity as a genre in mainstream media. This growth has created a unique evangelical opportunity to use science fiction to preach to unbelievers. If Christians …

With Love From The Front: Exploring Authenticity In Historical Fiction, Sarah E. Ray

Masters Theses

This MFA thesis is comprised of an artist statement, a scholarly essay on authenticity in WWII historical fiction, and a novel set during World War II. The artist statement outlines personal experiences, faith perspective, and writing aesthetics that shape the approach to historical storytelling, examining how a history-oriented upbringing and Christ-centered worldview inform a writing philosophy centered on crafting emotion through authentic character development and vivid sensory details. The scholarly component argues that authentic WWII fiction requires both meticulous historical accuracy and genuine emotional truth. Drawing on primary sources including interviews with former WWII Army members, wartime diaries, and period …

The Art Critic As Learner: A Review Of Erica Cardwell’S Wrong Is Not My Name, Bronte Cronsberry

Comparative Woman

Erica Cardwell’s debut book Wrong is Not My Name: Notes on (Black) Art is about art, race, family and perhaps most prominently, about grief. Through her personal experiences with these themes, Cardwell’s voice as art critic is still undeniably present throughout the entirety of the text. Wrong is Not My Name reminds readers of the power of art to push us towards growth, but in the context of this issue on Aesthetic Education, I focus on Cardwell’s approach to art as critic, which she continually grounds in her approach to art as learner. It is this orientation in particular that …

From Chatbots To Thought Bots: Teaching And Learning In The Age Of Ai, Stephen J. Mcconnell

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

Dr. Stephen McConnell’s keynote address took place on Friday, October 18, 2025, at the 82^nd Annual NYSCA Conference. In this personal but scholarly discussion, Dr. McConnell explores how various AI technologies do more than “assist” us – they also socialize us. He describes and explains several case studies that were part of his course at New York University entitled “Communications and AI,” and provides us with ten principles for teachers and students to become active participants with the tools of AI.

Dr. McConnell is a media scholar whose research focuses on the intersection of AI, digital communication platforms and …

No Longer At War With My Words: Finding Healing Through Therapeutic Writing, Marlo Degaetano Kreitzinger

Theses and Dissertations

While living in Dallas, Texas, I had the incredible opportunity to work with women transitioning out of homelessness, addiction, prison, or other life traumas. During my four years of facilitating life skills and job readiness classes, I witnessed a desperate need for healing. Many of the women I served were stuck in the repetitive cycle of their unprocessed emotional trauma. These women were often victims of the unprecedented mental health crisis plaguing our world and had little to no access to mental health resources. My initial introduction into therapeutic writing helped me to accept my own mental health crisis and …

Write The Way: A Healing-Centered Model For Moving Toward Liberatory And Transformative Experience, Ioanna P. Opidee

Educational Studies Dissertations

Writing can be a source of affirmation, empowerment, liberation, healing, and joy, but it can also be a source of dread, oppression, and identity-based harm, particularly for people who have been marginalized or minoritized. Write the Way is a theoretical model for writing and pedagogy, intended to help writers and teachers of writing clear out and tread safely along various pathways toward healing ourselves and our relationships—with writing, with others, and with ourselves—as we move together in the direction of a healing world. The purpose of this study was to identify the ways in which the Write the Way model …

Life Of Poetry: Practicing The Art Of Incarnation, Madison Wilcox

Student Research

This creative research project explores three questions. First, what does it mean to live a life of poetry, to be a poet? Second, what is the life cycle of a poem? How does a poem begin, grow, and come to an end? And finally, could Christ be a poet? By writing a collection of poems as the core of my project, I explored the poet’s life, followed several poems through their life cycle, and reflected on the intersection between Christ’s life and ours. To add a practical dimension to the project, I researched the publishing process through books and interviews. …

Efficiency Versus Quality: A Reflection On Making A Children’S Book, Elizabeth Diehl

Honors Projects

When first looking at a children’s book, it appears to be a simple creative project. However, when one finds out the components that go into making one, it becomes clear that simplicity is deceiving. Research, ideation, rough drafts, and scripts are just a few of the necessary components for the finished product, and each one of these components can take multiple days or weeks to complete. This essay is a reflection on my experience of creating a picture book in one semester as I attempt to answer the questions “What if the most efficient process for creating a children's picture …

Authoring Culture: The Foundations Of Twenty-First Century Writing, The Authoring Culture Collective

Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing

"Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing is an open educational resource (OER) designed for use in college-level first-year writing courses, but is also useful in college courses that assign writing projects, and in a wide array of other writing situations outside of class.

Authoring Culture is distributed under a Creative Commons license, so it is freely available for you to use and you are free to modify it. Just make sure you provide attribution to the original project authors in accordance with the Creative Commons license. Our aim in releasing Authoring Culture as an OER is to make it …

The Intersectionality Of Dance And Poetry, Isabelle Howerton

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Often times, a creative work utilizes multiple creative mediums. For example, many poetry books feature visual art to enhance the original work. Dance performance is, arguably, always multidisciplinary This leaves room for many questions regarding unique ways that creative work can be developed and what sources of inspiration can be used as contributors. The final project comprises a collection of five choreographic works and five poems that correlate with each other in various ways. These five creative works were created using multiple prompts that dictated the correlation level between the two mediums. These works were then filmed to transform the …

How I Fell In Love With Writing, Julia Lee

Emerging Writers

This is a story of being a first-generation student to come to America. This article includes the hardships of my arrival and how my relationship with writing grew because of the support of my English instructor.

Zippymania: A Multimedia Record Of The 2024-25 Akron Zips Men's Basketball Team, Drew Bailey

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project will involve the production, promotion, and distribution of a weekly 30-minute live radio show focusing on the Akron Zips men's basketball team. After the airing of each show, the recorded episode will be published as a podcast. Additionally, a weekly column or sports blog (written by myself) will be published and serve as a companion work or supplement to the radio program.

Tracing The Lines In Comics And Life: Genealogies And My Place Within Them, Audrey M. Loo

Honors Theses

My thesis is a hybrid English Lit/Creative Writing project on comics. The English Lit half is an Artist’s Statement comprised of scholarly research and both analytical and personal writing, and this work will necessarily inform and be informed by the Creative Writing half, in which I create my own comics.

From The Heart: Writing Love Poetry With Ai, Dan Ryan

Open Educational Resources

The chief reason our writing students turn to AI is not "laziness.” It’s fear. This lesson plan helps college students overcome their fear of a first-time poetry assignment by empowering them to partner with “collaborators”—first AI, then each other—to co-write a love poem before finally writing a poem on their own. This 4-hour lesson plan for a college-level Introductory Creative Writing course includes three low stakes drafting and revision assignments, and culminates in a high stakes poetry assignment.

The Vision Of The Inklings: Mythopoeia And Modern Christian Literature, Emmalene Sotomayor

Senior Honors Theses

The Inklings wrote with the intention to convey truth through myth. C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien and their friends developed stories to point readers to something greater—very often God. Christian creators now can look to their example while writing their own works of art. Currently, Christian fiction is in a sad state, known for mediocre romance novels that hardly portray faith in a moving or truthful manner. Believers can use the wisdom of Tolkien and Lewis to develop their own excellent works. Lewis and Tolkien’s beliefs in myth pointing to God, hope against adversity, and good resisting …

Healing Through Expressive Writing, Jennifer Chauhan, Christine Demarsico

New Jersey English Journal

Expressive writing has the power to heal and transform education.