How i write
With the possible exception of the equator, everything begins somewhere.
- C.S. Lewis
My Journey of the Beginning of Re-Finding My Voice As a Writer:
An Overview of Why I Write
One of the world's greatest gifts is trust. [And you can quote me!]
When I found out that in this Minor, a lot of what I was going to create would come from my own direction most of the time, I was impressed with the amount of trust we were being endowed with. Usually teachers prescribe exactly what should be contained within essays, short answers, and any other assignment they deem worthy of our time. But that was not the case here in the first project of the Minor in Writing.
The Why I Write piece was the perfect way to explore this trust. Why do I write? Any genre, any style, as long as it explains why I write.
Deciding to head back to my roots, I chose to write a creative non-fiction to depict the writing process for me as it flows through my head. It's mostly a metaphor played out with characters that embody the emotions of writing for me.
The rough draft came out like an overflowing cup of coffee. It felt like for the first time in a long time, I could just write my thoughts out. It was extremely freeing, but also very messy. There were three different routes that I decided to get feedback on before I finished the essay.
After contemplating the exact placement of my paragraphs as well as the stylistic choice of a creative non-fiction, I revised the draft into what is now found on the Projects tab under, "Why I Write."
My peers agreed that Option 3 would be the best route to pursue, so the final draft included a little bit of both options 1 and 2. My instructor had feedback regarding placement of certain arguments as well as the comparisons I make between emotions and writing.
- Naomi Silver, Writing 220 Instructor, on rough draft of Why I Write
"Sarah, I enjoyed reading this draft, and I appreciate your willingness to take a non-traditional approach to the essay! I have some questions and comments in the margins that speak to making the motivation for and concrete substance of your narrative more available to your reader throughout. Several of the ideas you raise in your Option 2 paragraph – and the very strong positive statements you make about the role of writing in your life – do not come through as clearly as they might elsewhere in the essay. Nice start, though – there’s a lot going on here!"
I was surprised at the feedback I got because I was really afraid of this piece at first. I hadn’t ever written anything like this for others to read. I do some poetry type writing in my free time, but never show anybody else. So for me to write so expressively and open and have others not only read it, but critique it was really intimidating for me. However, my peers and Naomi reassured me that this route was a good one and so I stuck to it.
I made some changes about the details primarily in the beginning and end to clarify sort of what the reader was about to dive in to. I wanted to make sure they could understand that this was something going on inside my head so it needed a bit of an intro. That’s something I received from my peers. They liked what I was saying and understood it once I explained it, but it wasn’t apparent in the essay what my true purpose was in writing this way.
I also changed the nightmare into a fight between Fear and Faith as personified characters. Before, Fear was being pushed down by an idea, but I liked the imagery more of a fight with Faith and the alliteration followed nicely. Some feedback I got was that it was sort of messy, which was understandable for the stream of conscious approach, but I wanted to make it a bit more concrete. I think the fight scene makes this possible.
Another piece of feedback I got was that I had some good ideas about what writing does for me, but it didn’t really come out very strongly. I realized after reading through it countless times, putting it away, and going to bed, that writing is Faith for me. All I needed to do was spell that out at the end, and the purpose of writing in my life would be instantly clear and concise. I’m pretty happy with how this paper developed. It started as too steam of conscious. Now it’s more analytical as well as creative. Putting the creative and analytical together was best.