February 1 post

In Shitty First Drafts, Anne Lamott describes that as writers, we need to start somewhere and that is usually by making a really crappy first draft that is long and boring. We should not be discouraged by this first draft and should ignore the voices that tell us we are not good writers according to this first draft because we need to go through two, three or maybe many more to get to the really great writing.

In what Writing is, Stephen King talks about getting the ideas onto the page and writing well because everyone thinks differently and perceives things differently and your point needs to be clear. He says to approach writing seriously and not lightly so that you can write well.

Allegra Goodman, in her article, "Calming the inner critic and getting to work", talks about comparing yourself to writers long past. She says that it is important to forget the past and focus on loving your work because in that, you will forget about all the voices telling you that you will never be as good as the writers before.

In "To see your story clearly, start by pulling the wool over your own eyes", Kent Haruf believes that everyone has there own nitch where they write and that it should bring them to a place of motivation. He also states that he thinks that the three most important things in writing novels are spontaneity, simplicity, and clarity because you need to have a fresh and vivid mind when writing.

In "Directions: Write, read rewrite. repeat steps 2 and 3 as needed, Susan Sontag talks about how writing is an act of reading which then is an act of writing. She says that after you write, you get to go back and re read and re write but that it is the best because you already have something to work with. She also displays that reading and writing are compatible

In "Becoming a writer" by Junot Diaz, he describes his 5 years of failure and his desire to go on while he came to the conclusion; "in my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing away."

Using these essays: I think that all of the writers have had writers blocks, demotivation from critics and previous material already written, and fear of failure. Each writer has their own place or own way of writing drafts and revising and editing, they all have their own systems.

Meta Moment:
1. I have learned not to worry about what everyone else is going to say about my writing, to be more consumed in what i want to say than being vain and wanting to be known for what i am saying, and to not give up on writing even when it is hard to write.
2. My conceptions of good writing and writers was that you were born to write and that there is something different about writers than everyone else. now i see that it is having a desire to write and be heard and never giving up.  First drafts are sometimes really shitty and discouraging but sometimes you just need to get it out.

Reflection: i thought it was cool to read about these writers and see how, where and what they are thinking about when they write. It took a while but it was interesting and more entertaining to read.