Senior Writing Portfolio Students
Millikin University

Matt Wheeler

biography

My mother found out she was pregnant with me when she went to the doctor to get her tubes tied. The doctor said he wouldn’t be able to perform the procedure for another nine months, to which my mother responded, “Oh God, not another one.” Or at least that’s what she told me when I was nine. Around that same time I asked Dad when I was conceived and he answered, “I don’t know. I wasn’t there.”

So what does this all mean?

Well, according to my parents not only am I a miracle baby, I’m also an immaculate conception. Now I’m not saying I’m the Second Coming, I’m just saying I might be a second cousin. The Second Cousin. If you give me a glass of water I wouldn’t be able to turn it into wine, but if I concentrate hard enough I might turn it into grape juice.

I grew up in a small town in Illinois called Bethalto, which is basically across the river from St. Louis. That river of course is the Mighty Mississippi, which I don’t advise swimming in because every time I walk on it the bottom of my feet are always so dirty.

Anyway I had the typical 80’s kid childhood: MTV, Ninja Turtles, He-Man, Big League Chew, Pee-Wee Herman, G.I Joe, Ernest Goes to Camp, Solid Gold Dancers, The Wonder Years, Slap-On bracelets, Super Mario Bros, Indiana Jones, Prince, Madonna, Michael Jackson, and of course, the man himself…ALF! Oh God, how much I wanted to be Alf when I was little. I miss that Melmacean’s zany one-liners and his endless torment of Willie Tanner. He was a king among peasants. But I digress. The point is that I am a born and raised pop culture kid who was surrounded by TV, movies, and music. And so, before I even learned how to truly read or write I would do my best to write the sequels to my favorite movies or an episode of Alf or a song. Obviously there were a lot of pictures involved. What I’m saying is I’ve been writing, almost literally, my entire life and never really wanted to be anything other than a writer.

Now if you excuse me, I’m going to try to find some Alf clips on YouTube.

Writing Theory

The Secret Madness Within Us

I believe the art of writing reveals the secret madness that lies within us more than any other art form. The way I see it we’re all a little isolated and/or misunderstood. The world is full of secrets, lies, misunderstandings, deceit and a sense of disconnection to everything and everyone around us and we are all aware of this. We keep ourselves at a distance, a secret self hidden from the out-side world, to protect ourselves from rejection. But the drawback is that we know that everyone else around us is doing the same thing. You never really sure that the person you’re talking to is understands you, or if you truly know the person sleeping next to you. In the end we do not scream our most intimate thoughts and feelings from the rooftops because we’re afraid of revealing ourselves, but because we’re afraid of not being understood. And this is what I’m most interested in as a writer, those thoughts and perceptions we keep to ourselves including the fear that everyone around us is not as they seem.

Writing communicates the assortment of feelings, observations, desires, fears, loves, and isolation that race through our minds and motivate our actions. The writer tells the truth about us; how we laugh when we want to cry or how we pretend to be fine when we’re really falling apart, or the shameful happiness of being sad, and so on. Writing is at its most effective when the reader can relate to the feelings and struggles of the character, if only partially.

I like exploring my characters’ reactions and motivations while adding enough layers and complexities to their situations and their perceptions so they may seem more real, more human. I hope this way the audience sees at least a little bit of themselves with my characters’ and come up with an interpretation that is meaningful to them. Then art becomes the highest form of communication as two or more human beings felt the same emotion or desire and maybe, just maybe, for one fleeting moment the audience is less isolated from one another.

Writing Sample

Annotation to “A Broken Heart’s Daughter”

I don’t consider myself a poet really, but I’ve always had a fondness for “A Broken Heart’s Daughter”. The descriptions are short, maybe even minimal, sensory flashes that create a dream-like atmosphere, like one vivid memory that stands out in the fog. Most of my poems are highly visual, almost as if I’m describing a photograph. I think this poem is my best representation of this approach, because each stanza is like a different photograph of the same subject taken at timed intervals, but flow together effortlessly, with a narration that binds each isolated image or action together. The end result being the first poem I’ve written that I can go back to months later and still enjoy. In other words, “A Broken Heart’s Daughter” made me like my poetry again.

A Broken Heart’s Daughter

Sinking into eyes
As blue as sadness
They hid the little girl
With her face in a book

Two bodies lingering
Skin haunting fingertips
Purple underwear and blue bra
Flannel sheets and cold fried rice

Tangled limbs
And gentle sighs
I told a joke
And you told a lie

Christmas lit bedroom
Your hair covering your breasts
And fall on me like rain
But still I see the timid little girl

Lonely in your arms
Careless and indifferent
You held me like a rag doll
Kept close to fill space

With a bite of the ear
You try to hide her away
A broken heart’s daughter
Underneath the calluses