Hello and welcome back! I hope everyone is having a wonderful day. In this second blog assignment for my English Composition class, I was asked to read and annotate texts (which I will link down below) from Don Murray, Marry Karr and Anne Lamott. I will be setting my own scene for a writers’ roundtable discussion about the writing process. I have provided 3 quotes from each reading creating a total of 9 quotes (I may have added an extra 1 or 2 more). I had a fun time creating this little story as I experimented with my creative side. This assignment helped me open my eyes to the steps it takes to create a good writing composition.
It was a chilly Saturday afternoon when I went into Barnes and Noble to finally buy the required book for my Sociology class. As I was trying to look for Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson in one of the aisles, I saw that there were long lines of people located close to the left side of the building. I was curious to see what all those people were waiting in line for as there were no counters on that side. As I approached, I saw that there were 3 long tables side by side. Behind one of them was a man sitting on an office chair and the other two had a woman each. The woman in the middle had beautiful long brown hair and the other lady beside her had blonde dreads that reached her shoulders. They looked oddly familiar and then it hit me, those are famous writers! It was Don Murray, Mary Karr and Anne Lamott. They were having an autograph signing here at Barnes and Nobles. Anxiety began to fill my mind as I realize that I have a few blog assignments due for my English Composition class this coming week and I have not started on them yet! I was never quite good at writing nor even confident about my work so I took this as an opportunity for me to ask these three skilled writers for some advice. I decided to wait in one of the lines for Don Murray. When it was finally my turn, I introduced myself and informed him about my dilemma. I asked him what does a person or a student like me have to do in order to have quality work. He looked at me and adjusted his big chunky specs, “When we teach composition, we are not teaching a product, we are teaching a process”. Puzzled, I asked him another question, “Since it’s not about a product but a process instead, what kind of steps should I take? How is this writing process like?” He replied to me, “The writing process itself can be divided into three stages: pre-writing, writing, and rewriting. The amount of time a writer spends in each stage depends on his personality, his work habits, his maturity as a craftsman, and the challenge of what he is trying to say.” “Do I really have to go through all of that?” “It is not a rigid lock-step process, but most writers most of the time pass through these three stages.” Mary Karr from the table next to us chimed in, “Revision is the secret to their troubles—and yours. That, and a sense of quality that exceeds what you can do—that gives you something to strive for. Actually, every writer needs two selves—the generative self and the editor self” Murray agreed with her and gestured a nod when he looked back at me. He and I talked for another minute or two and in my conversation with him, I learned that pre-writing takes most of the writer’s time, it can include daydreaming, note-making, outlining and so much more. The fastest part is the writing or producing the first draft. Rewriting is researching, rethinking, and redesigning the subject. Before I left, he told me, “Writing is a demanding, intellectual process; but sooner than you think, for the process can be put to work to produce a product which may be worth your reading.” Things started to make much more sense to me and I thanked him for his time. I then moved on to the next table hoping to speak with Mary Karr. As I waited in line for my turn, I heard her say “Every writer I know who’s worth a damn spends way more time “losing” than “winning"." When I approached her, I asked her what that had meant. “I’ve heard three truths from every mouth: (1) Writing is painful—it’s “fun” only for novices, the very young, and hacks; (2) other than a few instances of luck, good work only comes through revision; (3) the best revisers often have reading habits that stretch back before the current age, which lends them a sense of history and raises their standards for quality.” I remembered Murray and her advice about revision but I was confused by her last point so I asked, “What do you mean by the last thing you said? Does this mean for me to be a great writer I have to read a bunch of old books?” She explained how she read many literary biographies like Walter Jackson Bate on Keats and Coleridge; Enid Starkie on Baudelaire and Rimbaud; Diane Middlebrook on Anne Sexton; Ian Hamilton on Robert Lowell; Paul Mariani on William Carlos Williams. She explained that by reading those biographies, she got a sense of the person’s time in history which usually aided her to understand the styles of their writing in that context. You could see what kinds of literary pressures, fashions and values affected their work. Mary Karr moved some of the hair that was on her face behind an ear, “Reading through history cultivates in a writer a standard of quality higher than the marketplace." I was in awe with all this information I was hearing and realized that I should be reading a lot more. I smiled, thanked her as well for her time and left as there were many more people waiting in line behind me. Finally, I arrived in front of Anne Lamott’s table and introduced myself one last time. She asked me what brings such young person like me here and if I liked to write too. “A little bit, I’ve never been good at it, I’m horrible at writing” I said embarrassingly. She laughed, “Shitty first drafts. All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts." “That’s easy for you to say, you’re literally a pro at these things!” She laughed some more and explained, “People tend to look at successful writers, writers who are getting their books published and maybe even doing well financially, and think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have and what a great story they have to tell; that they take in a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few times to get all the cricks out, and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter. But this is just the fantasy of the uninitiated. I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident.” We both started laughing. Lammot said with a smile, “Don’t worry about doing it well yet, though. Just start getting it down. Try to get the words and memories down as they occur to you. Don’t worry if what you write is no good, because no one is going to see it." I've never felt so excited to start writing. I came home very inspired and thankful after speaking to these three amazing writers. I sat myself down in front of my computer and was able to begin writing my first draft. Words filled the paper so quick and I just didn’t know how to stop until I realized I had forgotten to buy the sociology book.
1 Comment
Albert Becerra
9/12/2022 02:19:15 pm
is this a true story or a fictional story?
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Maxyne LimcacoHi! Welcome to my blog. Archives
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