For my second experiment, I wrote a speech from the current government to the public about how the public needs to support a bill to make election day a federal holiday. In my head, I imagined it being from the perspective of President Obama because I admire his speech making skills. This was interesting to write in contrast to my first experiment because I was persuading people to do the same thing, but in a drastically different way. Experiment two was much more informative and direct than my first experiment. I was hoping to reach every citizen who can vote in elections. This was a difficult task, but the speech was from a credible source, which I thought would help. I wrote this speech thinking it would be aired on national television and published on all platforms where news is published—newspapers, websites, radios—so that every citizen no matter ideological standpoint or age, can hear/ read this speech.

 

For the third experiment, I decided to write a monologue. It was written from the perspective of a single mother who works two jobs. She barely has time to vote. In my previous two experiments, my main point was that to move the country forward, federal election day must be made a federal holiday. This experiment was different because I wanted to just focus on one single woman. This persuasion technique made the point that innocent people who work hard need this change. This monologue was about much more than just making federal election day a federal holiday—it was about a woman crying out in need. Therefore, I imagined it would be published on a blog site or read out loud at an intimate coffee shop.

 

Since I am not an expert short story writer, I decided that what was meant to be a short story, didn’t really feel like one. Therefore, when I was working on it for my final project, I realized that it is more of an open letter from college students of the future to current college students. This is an open letter from a fictional perspective, which is pretty unique for the genre of an open letter. I sort of combined a few genres together to create this fully-realized project.

 

I had a hard time deciding who I wanted my audience to be. After all, college students only make up a small amount of eligible voters. I went back and forth deciding if my audience should be solely college students or if it should be voters in general. I ultimately decided that even though I wanted to reach a wider range of people, I think my piece is more effective just geared towards college students.

 

I figured that writing a creative piece is an appropriate way to join the conversation because my audience of college students does not want to read another essay or Facebook post about why federal election day should be a federal holiday. This dystopian story will engage college students because it will be different from what they have already seen. Rather than learn why this change should happen, they will be learning what will happen if this change does not occur. Additionally, I think college students will actually want to read this story because of its entertainment purposes. This genre will be an “in” for college students because it will be enjoyable. It will also feel real and relatable to the audience since it is from the perspective of a fellow college student.

 

As I was writing this piece, I thought a lot about Gillian Flynn’s writing style. She uses a dark and ambiguous tone. Additionally, her characters are not always reliable. In her novel Gone Girl, the story is told through diary entries. The characters tell it how it is, but you don’t know who the reliable source is. This makes me think that I could see my open letter as a small piece in a larger collection of letters from college students in the future telling college students today things about what they should have done differently. If I decide that I want my open letter to exist as a single piece, I can publish it in literary magazines at different universities. A literary magazine will be a good publication source for this piece because it is a creative writing piece. Since the piece is intended for college students, it makes sense for it to be distributed to college students on different college campuses.

 

Since I discussed how much trouble I had writing this piece, I feel as though I need to explain where I think my shortcomings were. I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to describe and develop my dystopian world. Be it a short story or a letter, both genres are meant to be kept short. I had trouble describing what I wanted to say in a small amount of words. As the writer, sometimes it is difficult to step back and ask yourself what will the readers understand from this. Additionally, I had difficulty developing a voice that wasn’t my own. I knew I wanted my main character to be a sassy and opinionated college student and at certain points this was able to shine through. However, I think I let my own voice shine through too strongly in other parts. Again, I think this is just something that is developed and improved with practice.

 

My main goal from my experiment sketch draft to my fully-realized project was to create a more developed story. I put too many ideas into my sketch draft, which meant that it was too difficult to focus and develop every aspect in a genre that is meant to be kept brief. I focused in on the aspects that I wanted to develop further, which also allowed me to add more detail and depth to my writing. I also wanted me make sure that I developed a stronger ending than the one I wrote in my sketch draft. I found this to be a difficult task because I had to wrap up such a drastic concept in a succinct and eloquent manor. I decided that the best way to do this was to leave the audience guessing and wanting more in the end.