Freeing my inner child.

Leone gave me back my story for Writing Fiction 1 yesterday.
It had a whole page of critism regarding what was right and wrong with my piece, but I've only just been feeling brave enough to read it.
It actually isn't as bad a report as I feared. Madam Leone said my weak points are wordiness and poor sentence construction - which is cool because I know I have major problems with those - as well as a poorly constructed 8 point story arc (I wasn't in for that lesson, that probably explains it).
These are things I know I can work on with a little bit of positive energy. I'm only stupidly wordy when I'm not sure of myself, so I'm going to spend some time this week making sure I know exactly what I want to do with this semester's portfolio. As for poor sentence construction, that's something I'm constantly trying to improve. Most are aware that a lot of what I know has been self-taught because of complications at school, so I'm having to play catch up with my peers who were already taught the basics. I think a throrough read of Strunk and White is in order.
I'm really chuffed with the more positive feedback she's written for me. She said I have excellent characterisation skills, a beautful eye for detail and a great sense of humour. She also said that I should carry on writing from a child's perspective because it appears to be the most natural writing voice I fall into. Hey, cool by me...
Overall I'm feeling quite positive about where I'm heading, which makes a change because I'm usually not happy with things related to my course. I don't think I'll ever be a traditional story writer, but I've given it a go and didn't completely flop.
At least with the advanced narrative module I can write stories that don't have to follow an arc and that can just rely on good characterisation. It means I can play with things a little bit more and go back to the snapshots I'm comfortable with.