Anne Lamott's essay spoke much to me about getting started with writing. She spoke much about how starting out writing is hard for anyone, even famous author's, English teachers, or whoever they may be. She expressed how there aren't really any writers that just sit down and type their entire story or essay up in a matter of minutes, without flaws or imperfection. A lot of the times people struggle most to just get the general outline typed out on a page.
From her personal standpoint, she believes one should just vent onto the page with anything they can think of, no matter how crazy it could possibly be. What I got out of her essay is that it's good to just get a starting point even if it's all jumbled up and all over the place. I feel this does help me some because I to have trouble just getting started on something, mainly because I get distracted from writing very easily. Although, when ever I begin writing, I tend to act as if it is my final draft and I tend to just correct myself as I go through it. I've never been big on just writing something bad just to have something down on paper finally.
Throughout her essay Lamott expressed how frustrated she would get and that it almost felt as if she'd die if she left her writing to do something else. I like her also get frustrated when you just get into a rut and can't think of anything to put on paper, but I would normally just leave for a bit to give my mind a break. I guess I've just never been so attached to my writing so I always just wanted to write the best first draft I could so I wouldn't have to write out anymore.
Lamott also used many strange metaphors and references in her essay. She uses references to parents in agony to what she's writing or fear of people finding her stories boring like a houseplant. She also spoke up her pen being like locked up snarling dogs that would creep their way out if she stopped writing. I thought it was kind of crazy how into a writing one could be. Although, I did like the general idea of the exercise that her hypnotist gave her. I do feel like I have thousands of words flowing through my mind at times when I'm trying to write, and just to pick them out and close them up to keep them quiet really helped me to think clearer.
I found that for such a short writing, she was able to get a lot of information out there to the reader. her topic was interesting and very helpful.
ReplyDelete"I guess I've just never been so attached to my writing so I always just wanted to write the best first draft I could so I wouldn't have to write out anymore." I think this truly is the main thing for many of us. Papers were just one small part of school that we quickly tried to hurdle over. Trying, actually trying, to make a paper something special often only comes if the subject is of our interest.
ReplyDeleteThe tough part about this is college, and the expectation that we will add to academia through writing, so now we have to figure out how to value our papers for ourselves and our institution.