Algebra, statistics, chemistry and
physics; if you are like me these were your favorite subjects in school. Your
favorite subject was definitely not history, English or creative writing. But
English is one of the most important subjects in school because no matter what
career path you choose or where you go you will use knowledge you learned from
your English class. It even helps you learn other languages because many
languages have similar grammar rules and concepts. So unfortunately everyone
has to take English. For those that excel in English, writing is a breeze. The
ideas, the grammar and the vocabulary come easy. For everyone else, staring at
a blank screen and putting it off until the last minute is common.
The problem with this is that as
human beings we love to compare ourselves to everyone around us. Who’s smarter,
funnier, better looking and nicer are some of the most common ways we compare
ourselves to everyone around us. Add who’s a better writer to the list, and you
have a good representation of me anytime I try to write. I know I wasn’t born a
writer and therefore don’t write if I don’t have to. The only time I enjoy
writing is when I am writing on a particular topic or issue that I am
passionate about. I like to write about technology, religion and even political
issues on occasion. Other than that I don’t write. Unless you count really long
text messages which most of the time I try to talk to them on the phone before
I send a 1,000-character text message.
In my last blog post I realized that
sometimes I choose not to write just because I don’t think it will be good even
if the topic does interest me. It helped me to realize that I will never know
the outcome if I never try. The only thing left is to find ways to connect with
the topic of the paper to make it interesting for me. For a research paper or
papers with more flexibility that should be pretty easy but a literary analysis
or a documented essay? I don’t think so. So I decided there must be another way
to get me motivated to write these types of papers.
As I was thinking about this I
started thinking about how I brainstorm and what I do for prewriting. To be
honest, I can’t remember the last time I did any kind of brainstorming on paper
or wrote down ideas before starting to write. Usually I go at it right away and
figure it out as I go. In other words, I take a long time to write papers
because I’m constantly changing my ideas and the organization. I edit the paper
as I write it so by the time I’m done I usually call it good and don’t want to
even look it over because I didn’t want to write it in the beginning and I definitely
don’t want to write it again.
For all I know, I could be a pretty
decent writer but most of the time I don’t give myself a chance to do my best
because I don’t have the patience for the amount of time that it takes to write
a paper. It’s not the grammar or spelling that gets me because I actually do
really well whenever I am tested on either of those. I also like editing other
people’s papers and have done it numerous times for my younger sisters because
I have a pretty good sense of when something doesn’t work or doesn’t sound
right. It really comes down to thinking of ideas and putting words on paper in
a way that gets my message across and is worth reading.
One of my goals for this class is
going to be pushing myself to put more effort and thought into my writing. To
spend more time brainstorming and also writing all my ideas down on paper so
that I can refer to them later. Most importantly, I’m going to work on managing
my time better and planning a schedule so I don’t procrastinate and write the
whole thing a few hours before it’s due. While I do work well under pressure,
it doesn’t work for my writing and my ideas are generally incomplete. Even
worse, I don’t get to finish writing all the things I should have because I run
out of time. Right now you are probably hitting yourself thinking, “Why would
you wait until the last minute and then not even finish your essay?” that’s a
good question, I don’t have a good answer to that other than I just didn’t want
to do it. It’s not like I plan to wait until the last minute; when I get the
assignment my intention is to start it right away but something always comes up
and no matter what it is it takes priority over writing a paper. Same with the
brainstorming, it crosses my mind but then I convince myself it isn’t going to
help much and so I skip it.
If you related to any of this I hope
you decide to change your ways and see what you are truly capable of. Give
yourself a chance because you won’t know what the world has to offer until you
put yourself out there. I haven’t even been in this course a week but I already
feel like I have come to realize a lot about myself as a writer. I’ve admitted
my weaknesses as a writer and now I hope to turn those weaknesses into
strengths. Maybe I’ll even start to like writing but I think we can both agree
that’s a stretch.
Oh Joey! Where to start? First, you crack me up with your last line. And second, since we're being all honest about ourselves as writers: I don't know many professional writers who actually enjoy the act of writing. They enjoy having written. There is a difference--as you can relate to, I'm sure. Third, my mentor is in college was one of the great names in my field. H'e a freakin' academic rockstar with brilliant ideas. But you could always tell when he was up aginst a deadline with some paper to write, because he would be posting a bazillion things on Facebook! That doesn't meant procrastination works--deadlines get a little different when you are a professor, he used to say. The point is that, even for the best writers, writing is hard work.
ReplyDeleteI am glad to hear about your goals to work your writing process into your schedule because if there is anything I want you to take away from this class it's that writing simply takes time. It is a process. AND it is a HARD process for nearly everyone--"good" writers or not. I'm a process person and so I think of it this way: say you're rebuilding a '65 Chevy. You simply aren't going to start by painting it. Especially if you're missing the fenders and half the bed. You have to do the first steps first. Does it sound like I'm contradicting my "no grammar rules" stance? I'm not. The truth is, to build the truck, you have to start at the beginning, but where that beginning is depends wholly on all sorts of other variables--like if you have a truck or if you have to go collect random parts. Writing is like that to me: you and I could have in mind the same shiny, red and chrome final product, but how we get there is going to differ. Either way, though, we will both go through many steps that will each be a process on their own. The first one is finding out what you want--brainstorming--and it can be a lot of fun. :-)
--Mallory out