I'm No Pulitzer Prize Winner, but..

When I began school this semester, I made some assumptions about my classes; based on previous experience, I figured I would not like either of my writing classes. As it turns out, I was wrong--as I usually am, and have actually enjoyed my two writing classes, much to my surprise (I don't consider myself capable of writing intriguing, substantial works beyond a purely academic piece). In my Personal Essay class, we work on what our teacher refers to as creative nonfiction. For some reason, I can't recall ever having read any personal essays or memoirs, the sungenres of creative nonfiction, and the idea of nonfiction being creative seemed kind of contradictory to me: how can the truth be creative? The truth is messy, dramatic and often boring. But when I read some of the sample memoirs in our book, Writing True, I was gone; the truth, written creatively, is so interesting. This is important because I have always thought that everyone has a story to tell, and I love listening to people's stories. Furthermore, I have always wanted to write the story of my family, but every time I have tried to write a true story in a creative writing setting, my instructor has told me that the truthful details in my stories were bogging them down. I had no idea there was a whole genre of writing specific to telling one's own story. When I thought about writing my own memoir or personal essay, though, I never thought I could write one that would be anywhere near as vivid and emotional and intriguing as the ones I had read in my book.
The piece I chose to submit for the National Day on Writing is a memoir that I wrote for this class. The assignment was to write about a memory from before I turned eighteen. I chose the memory from the day my mom told me and my sisters that she was divorcing my stepdad. The funny thing is that I haven't really done any writing about my life--not like this. Aside from the stories that I tried to write about my family in my creative class which were unsuccessful, I haven't ever done any personal, very therapeutic writing. Personal essays are all about what the writer learns from the writing experience: a recognition or epiphany. Oddly enough, though I haven't done any writing about my life in the past, the idea of the memoir just clicked. I have never writtten anything that actually helped me come to a realization about my life like this memoir did, but I guess that's what personal essays are all about.
I don't consider myself a great writer. I am not gifted like those people who are meant to use their words to impact others. But when my classmates read the memoir in our peer review group, it actually brought tears to one girl's eyes and rendered the others speechless. I looked at them, completely unaware that my own experience could have any effect on someone else; sure, the memoir was a nice outlet for me, but I didn't know that it could actually affect someone else so powerfully (for better or worse). That's probably the biggest reason I chose this piece to submit: it really was a great outlet for me. But also because, for the first time that I have ever witnessed firsthand, my writing--and by further extension, my own story--actually made an impact on someone.
I may never become a writer full time. I will never write a novel that will win a great literary prize, but I can now see the value of writing for myself, of writing just for the therapy of it. Just like the students in the movie I watched for my last Observation, Freedom Writers, I have discovered the sheer value of personal writing. Even more than that, I realize that sharing your story with someone else is just as important. There's a kind of security in knowing that someone else knows where you've been. Even if all of your audience hasn't had the same experiences, and doesn't know what you're talking about, it's helpful to have people reading your work who can relate to you simply through your words. When you make eye contact with the girl who is crying because she hasn't been there, but through your writing she felt the emotion of which you were speaking, that's when you know your writing was successful. That's what this piece did for me, more than anything else. It let me believe, if only temporarily, that I can write successfully, that I can write interesting, creative, powerful stuff. This memoir is far from perfect, I wouldn't even call it excellent. But it's the first piece of writing I have ever written (aside from academic essays) of which I can call myself truly proud.

Aspects of Creative Writing

Last term, I was convinced by my academic advisor to take a creative writing course. I was very opposed to the idea, insisting that I was "not a creative writer" and therefore could not possibly benefit from the class, even though I have always secretly wanted to write a novel someday, but never thought I had the talent to do it. Much to my chagrin, I took the class after her prompting and learned that I can write creatively. The instructor of that class said something that has stuck with me since: "Good writing is five percent talent, and ninety-five percent hard work."
As the author of the article, "Getting Started Writing Science Fiction" points out, you don't have to be an expert in writing craft to get started writing...and thats all it takes; practice makes perfect. I liked this author's idea of getting started: "open up a word processor and put words together to form sentences,and sentences to form paragraphs." He is absolutely right, most of us are terrible writers at first, but the more we practice, the better we become.
I think that this idea would be coupled well with the main theme of the article I found, "How to Write A Novel Using the Snowflake Method." For people who like the idea of writing creatively, but don't know how, or don't believe they have the talent, (like me) this method is perfect. It is especially useful to me because I am such an organized person, and making something that I look at as intimidating and often messy (the craziness of not knowing where to begin a story, how to develop it, or what to do next with it) much more attainable and less frightening. I guess I am more "right brain" in most respects, and therefore a ten-step method to writing a novel seems much more practical than just plunging right in and getting stuck partway through.
I also really appreciate this author's emphasis on the importance of character development. This was often my problem in that first Creative Writing class I took. My instructor would mention some view that he, as a reader, got from my character, and would ask if this is how I wanted to portray the character. I usually realized that I was giving more of my attention to what was happening in the story than who it was happening to--not a good thing to do. After all, characters are "a driving force that propels your work forward and captures the imagination and the attention of your reader," according to the author of the article, "Ideas in Creative Writing--Characterization."
In short, creative writing is difficult to master--all aspects of it. But if you can persever long enough to do so, the payoff, whether material, social emotional or any other kind, will be very great.

On Writing for an Audience

First off, I would like to give a shout out to all the members of this first group for finding such substantial readings; I hope I can finds something on my own topic that is of equal worth. Secondly, I would like to say that I really found the readings to be beneficial. The first one, "Writing Tips for Children" is something that I have never really considered before. I would like to write a novel someday, but I have never really considered writing for children and so have never given much regard to the art of fiction for children. But after reading those tips, it seems like writing for children would be very difficult, like writing for a newspaper. There are so many rules and guidelines to stick to in order to write successfully for children. For instance, the author of this article suggests that you be specific--don't just say "flower," say what kind of flower, also, name your characters and cut out unnecessary words that get lost in the jumble. Isn't this exactly what we all have been trying to do, unsuccessfully, with Twitter these last few weeks? I know that this group's theme was about writing for specific audiences, but I think that as writers, these tips for writing for children could help us out just in general, everday writing.
I also really liked the article "Responding to Content." This article made me realize that writing for an audience pertains to all kinds of writing, not just writing that is academic. This is something I have never considered before, probably because I had never considered my audience until I got into college. But the author makes a good point when he or she says, "Whenever people read a piece of writing, they respond to it . . . and it is the content that they usually respond to." This is something that we need to consider whenever we are writing, even if what we are writing is intended only for ourselves. How will your reader respond? What will your reader take from this piece? The various ways that this article offers to help consider this and to successfully conquer this problem were also helpful. I like that the author encourages her fellow instructors/teachers/scholars to question or talk to studenst about their writing, to write sticky notes on their papers. There is nothing I can stand less than getting a paper back with a resounding grade in colored ink and completely unmarked otherwise, or to be in a peer editing group who offers nothing more than, "Wow, that was good. I liked it." Writers must consider their audience, but readers (or at least those reading the works of writers in the revision process) have a responsibility also to make sure that the writer knows what is working and what is not working.