Hello Everyone! In this blog assignment I will be composing a short (super short) story using quotes from three texts: Teach Writing as a Process Not a Product (Don Murray), Against Vanity: In Praise of Revision (Mary Karr), and Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (Anne Lamott). Writing this story was a bit hard for me because not gonna lie, I'm not crazy about writing stories, but I like what I came up with and I hope you do too! :)
What a night. As I was laying on my bed, struggling to finish a blog assignment- sleep starting to call my name, I decided I needed help. Going on to reddit I decided to post my unfinished draft to get some insight, some very much needed help. I began to type, “Really feeling the writer’s block with this English assignment, any advice?” I went back to look at my writing, waiting for a response as I got a notification from a user named Bob__Murray saying, “Don’t look back. Yes, the draft needs fixing. But first it needs writing.” Clearly confused, I asked what he meant and as fast as the first response he then replied with, “Be patient, listen quietly, the writing will come. The voice of the writing will tell you what to do.” Another user named MaryKarr55 responded to his comment, seeming to try to help me understand better with, “The idea is to get some scenes down. Let your mind roam down some alleys that may land in dead ends—that’s the nature of the process.” “Okay so I get that I need to start writing whatever comes into mind, but what's the point if later on it just gets thrown out, I end up not using it?” “You have to cheer yourself into cranking stuff out, even if it later lands on the cutting room floor. Each page takes you somewhere you need to travel before you can land in the next spot.” Wow. I sure am lucky to have such insightful writers responding to my questions, I wonder if they’re famous? (;)) Another user named AnneLammot10, I’m sure can see I’m stressing about this draft, very kindly says, “Say to yourself in the kindest possible way, Look, honey, all we’re going to do for now is to write a description of the river at sunrise, or the young child swimming in the pool at the club, or the first time the man sees the woman he will marry. That is all we are going to do for now.” As I begin to slowly write more to my draft, saying my version of that sentence, it starts to help, my draft starts to come together and looks much better than it was from the beginning. I respond to her and the others, thanking them for their help. She reassures me, “For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts.” “But how do you keep going with it?” I ponder, “How do you get past writing that shitty first draft?” “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts.. What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head.” I completely get that, whenever I try to write it seems as though my mind keeps telling me ‘that sounds terrible, delete it!’ or, ‘what are you even talking about?’ Understanding now that writing is key, I ask, “But what about the revision after the writing, what process should I even follow?” After not answering for awhile, Bob__Murray comes back to say, “The writing process itself can be divided into three stages: prewriting, writing, and rewriting.” While MaryKarr55 answers my revision question, “In the long run, the revision process feels better if you approach it with curiosity..Remind yourself that revising proves your care for the reader and the nature of your ambition.” After all of this great advice, I end up finishing my draft for my blog assignment and submitting it, falling asleep, ready for my English class tomorrow.
2 Comments
Ashley Gaylor
2/11/2020 11:23:47 am
I really liked the way you had this blog post set up, the dialog was easy to follow and understand. Your blog post actually made me think about the fact that I need to revise mine because its a mess. The message was clear and straight to the point as well!
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Bill Lewis
2/11/2020 12:39:22 pm
I agree with Ashley, the way you have your blog post set up makes the dialog easy to follow and understand.
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