Writing success for me has always been tied closely to my mood. When I am in the “writing” mood I can knock out any length assignment in a short amount of time and it generally turns out well. However, when I am not in that place, it can be like biking uphill to crank out even a short reading response. As I grow as a writer, I am finding out ways to get myself in the place where I can really put in effort without it seeming tedious and impossible. I feel as if this class has pushed me closer to breaking this mental boundary altogether.
Topic is one thing that makes a huge difference in how real and conversational I can make my pieces. For the memoir piece, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about and it was really important for me to get out my feelings about my close friends passing. In the end, my grade reflected the amount of passion and personality I let come through the piece. However, when it came to the restaurant review, I had a little more trouble. I was frustrated because I knew that I could do really well, but I just had no drive to really push out a quality piece. It’s not that I didn’t want to make Marin happy or that I don’t care about grades, but my mind was not in a positive place to really make the piece light up in the way my first one did. For this last piece, I felt the same kind of personal connection that I did with the memoir and I think it turned out really well. I hope that at some point I can find a way to create a good piece of writing even when I don’t feel a connection with the topic. This is one of the things I need to continue to work on as I grow as a writer and continue to take writing intensive courses.
For me, the process of writing works best if I just sit down and write out the piece fully as it comes to me. Then, after I have out a general framework, I go through a more intense editing process and put in the finishing details. I’m not the kind of person who sits and contemplates each line, if I did all of my pieces would suck. I overthink almost everything in my life, but writing is one thing I have accepted works best for me if I just let it happen. My revision process is very much like my original editing process, where I will look at specific areas first and then read over the piece as a whole and see if it still flows well with the changes I made.
The workshop portion of the class was a really great learning experience for me, maybe even playing a bigger roll in my growth than the actual writing of the pieces. I feel like I got most of my ideas for my own revisions from reading my classmate’s pieces. I would read someone else’s writing and see that I didn’t like the way they did something. Then I’d notice that I had made the same mistake in my piece and change it. Its often really hard to objectively revise your own writing, so by noticing the mistakes in other people’s pieces it was easier for me to see what I had done wrong. In terms of comments on my own pieces, I would most often look at the areas that the class had said didn’t work and then change it in my own way rather than taking their direct instruction. I know that sometimes comments that are made on structure or style can be personal preference and so I wanted to make sure that the pieces remained my own while also listening to the class’s advice.
This class really helped me to become more open with my writing and appreciate the workshop tool in a new way. I was really nervous when opening up that much about my friend’s death, I am generally a very private person, but everyone was really great and being able to write about my experience in this way was awesome. I also feel like I am learning more about the types of writing that work for my natural style, generally more conversational, and which do not. I hope that when it comes time to graduate I will be comfortable with all types of writing; this class has gotten me even closer to that goal. Best of all, now I know my study abroad blog will be epic, at least when I’m talking about food.
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