February 1st HW

Lammot: In Shitty First Drafts, Anne Lamott explains that writers need to have a "child's draft" which is the first one that is horrible and no one will read, the second draft which she describes as an "up draft" where you fix it up, and the third and final draft, the "dental draft" where you check everything out.

King: In What Writing Is, Stephen King talks about telepathy and how it can be used in writing. He gives us an example with the rabbit in the cage and describes how that can connect us even though he didn't give specific details we are thinking the same thing.

Goodman: In Calming the Inner Critic and Getting to Work, Allegra Goodman talks about how to be a confident writer you need to believe in yourself and love your work, because that is what makes it hard to critique. She also talks about blocking out all the the bad voices you may hear when your trying to write.

Haruf: In To See Your Story More Clearly, Start by Pulling the Wool Over Your Own Eyes, Kent Haruf talks about all of the strange things that writers do to help them write better and the environments in which they do so. He describes his writing space in the coal room of his house which he has a lot of meaningful items all around him. He also will blind himself by taking his glasses off and putting a stocking cap over his eyes so he isn't distracted by grammar and punctuation errors.

Sontag: In Directions: Write, Read, Rewrite. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 as Needed, Susan Sontag discusses a more creative  way to revise your writing. She says that even though something may be very good the first time it is written, it can get better the more times you write it.

Diaz: In Becoming a Writer, Junot Diaz shares with us the story of how it took him a decade to finish just one novel. He went through a lot of problems such as writers block and a lack of confidence in himself as a writer.

Using these essays: I don't see any common metaphors in the writings and I don't see them grappling with rules either. I did see Junot Diaz struggle like Tony did with his writers block.

Meta Moment: We have to gain a lot more knowledge about the ways to write. One thing for example is that we need to take our mind off of our writing. Another thing I learned is that you need to keep writing in order to get your best work. Lastly I think it is important to never lose the desire to write even if something isn't going as planned like what happened with Diaz.

Reflection: I thought most of these articles were beneficial to read and were interesting such as the Lammot and King articles. Also I think that Diaz's article was very important to read because it shows you to never give up when your writing because eventually it will come to you. I thought Sontag made a great point when she said you need to write your work more than one time. Haruf made a great point about being comfortable when you write such as how he writes in the coal room.