Welcome to Ty’s second blog post, I made this for my English composition 1 class. A couple summers ago I took a vacation with my girlfriend to Miami, Florida. While we were down there we had so much fun. We went to the beach, movie theaters, walked the streets, met some famous people, and even also met three professional writers in the lobby of our hotel: Don Murray, Mary Karr, and Anne Lamott. They informed us that they were talking about The Writing Process as we approached them.
My girlfriend and I struggled at writing, therefore we sat down with them and they offered to help us improve our writing skills. The three professional writers were willing to answer any questions we had about writing. We took the deal of allowing them to help us, because it’s very uncommon to come across famous writers offering you help. I’ll provide links to the articles below and I encourage you to check them out. Teaching Writing as a Process Not Product (Don Murray) Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (Anne Lamott) Against Vanity: In Praise of Revision (Mary Karr) As we started walking to the door to walk and to finish the conversation, a number of people approached them asking for autographs and pictures. They only took a few pictures and they kept walking and continuing the conversation. People were still following us so as we’re talking I'm looking back. As I said Don when he was finished, “I have a half complete essay that’s due when I come back from my vacation, I just don’t know what to add next.” Dom responded ““Don’t look back. Yes, the draft needs fixing. But first it needs writing.” My girlfriend is quiet as a mouse just listening next to me. I always wanted to rush my writing to get it done. Writing takes time, you have to brainstorm your thoughts. I responded to Dom and said “ I have a bunch of thoughts in my head, I just don’t know how to place them in the correct place in the essay. Dom said, “Be patient, listen quietly, the writing will come. The voice of the writing will tell you what to do.” It’s easy for him to say that because he’s a writer and he’s been doing this for years and years. I asked Dom “Is writing your talent ?” Dom smiled a little and responded “Writing is primarily not a matter of talent, of dedication, of vision, of vocabulary, of style, but simply a matter of sitting. The writer is a person who writes”. My girlfriend has many thoughts on the top of her head also but she’s scared to speak so she taps me and say “should I ask Mary a question.” I responded “yes.” as Mary heard her say she wants to ask her a question. My girlfriend says “Do writers care about the work the mess up on? Do they feel like they not winning since their so used to making good papers.” Mary kindly responded “Every writer I know who’s worth a damn spends way more time “losing” than “winning.” My girlfriend says” So Mary do you need to be two sided to your writing? Is that what your saying?” Marry responded “ Actually, every writer needs two selves—the generative self and the editor self.” My girlfriend was staring at her as she spoke. My girlfriend said she has one more question is she didn’t mind answering it. Mary smiled and said I have all-day baby girl. My girlfriend asks her “Do you throw out you work after your finished?” Mary quickly responds and says “Still, those early pages I threw away were somehow necessary, even if I wrote past them. They were way stations I needed to visit to eliminate them from the final itinerary.” As we approached a fancy place we’ve never seen before, we decide to turn around and head back to the hotel. But I still had a few more questions for Anne so I asked “The first poem you wrote how well did it go?” and Anne thought about it for a second, but Anne responded “The first poem I wrote that got any attention was about John Glenn. The first stanza went, "Colonel John Glenn went up to heaven / in his spaceship, Friendship Seven." I smiled as the wind blowing in our faces. I responded “That’s crazy, so what would some of the students say to you?” Anne said they would say ““Who the hell are you, God’s dean of admissions?” Me and my girlfriend was shocked because they went through a lot of things we’ve never been through. As we approached the hotel, we kindly said our goodbyes to each other. I only had one more question for Anne though. I called her name quickly walking back to Anne. I have one more question for you. Anne replied “ sure what is it.” I asked Anne “How did you fight through all of the struggle of pain with writing?” She responded “"I don’t even know where to start.” So therefore, I listened to Anne speak for 10 minutes. My girlfriend wanted me to hurry up so I made the conversation quickly.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Ty'Jae MontanezMy thoughts on how I see things ArchivesCategories |