Hi, this is the fourth installment of my blog for my English Composition I class. For this assignment, I had to read and annotate three articles discussing the writing process. After reading the articles, I had to create a scene where I discuss writing with the authors and use three quotes from each of them. As I am not a coffee drinker, nor do I frequent book stores, and I’m not a social media fan either, so I thought I might try a different setting of where I run into Don Murray, Anne Lammott, and Mary Karr. I used a restaurant that my Girlfriend and I frequent named “Border Café”, not as different as I would have liked but it does the job. I’m pleased that I got the opportunity to read these pieces because it opened my eyes to how writing will always be a constant process, and how you have to push yourself through the stages of writing and revision. I’ve provided links to the articles below and I encourage you to check them out.
On Thursdays my Girlfriend and I go to a restaurant close to our townhouse that’s called Border Café, we go there because the food is excellent, if you like Tex-Mex/Cajun style food, which we do. Last Thursday when we went it was around 6:30pm and it was cold and raining like it had been most of the day, and we were anxious to get inside and get dinner, we were both starving. I was craving their fajitas and stressing about the blog due this week for my English Composition class which I should at least had some ideas for, instead I’m having the normal questions running through my head. How do I start writing? What should I even write about? What place should I use for the setting of the story? Can I just push it off to the last minute and pray I get it done in time? I’ve never been the best at writing, especially story telling it’s one of the genres in writing that I’m not good with letting other people read. After I have all these thoughts go through my head, I decide to not think about it until after we’re done dinner. I open the door for my Girlfriend and we go in the hostess seats us and we open our menus and begin to decide what we’re getting for dinner. We talk about what each of us is interested in getting for dinner. The waitress comes and asks if we are ready to order and we do. But during this process I over hear someone to right saying “We have to respect the student, not for his product, not for the paper we call literature by giving it a grade, but for the search for truth in which he is engaged.” I turned to see who was speaking and to my surprise it was Don Murray, I recognized him from his picture in the readings for my English Composition class. He was discussing his ideas on the writing process with two women who seemed to be very intrigued by the point he was trying to make, while enjoying their meals. I sat and listened to them for a minute as one of the women responded “Writing is painful, it’s ‘fun’ only for novices, the very young, and hacks” which was another phrase that I swore I had heard before. Then I realized that the two women he was with were Mary Karr and Anne Lamott! I made eye contact with Don Murray, he was sitting on an angle across from me, and asked him “Are you Don Murray?” and he responded ”Yes I am”, and I responded “I thought that was you“ and he proceeded to introduce Mary Karr and Anne Lamott to me. I began to tell them that I was taking an English Composition class and was stressing about writing this blog, and explained it to them. The three looked at each other and soon broke into huge smiles, at that point I knew I could ask them about the writing process. I asked “I thought writing was something either you were good at or you weren’t.” and once I said it, I knew I was in trouble. Anne responded with “Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it.” To which Don said “The writing process itself can be divided into three stages: prewriting, writing, and rewriting.” I got the feeling they all agreed but Anne leaned forward and said “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something, anything, down on paper.” I was in shock at the fact that I was talking to three writers who are well known and accomplished each in their own right sitting here talking to me about the writing process. At that point Mary replied with, “The idea is to get some scenes down. Let your mind roam down some alleys that may land in dead ends—that’s the nature of the process.” Thinking about what I was experiencing, I wished I was better prepared for this eventful evening but who knew I would go to dinner and run into theses three. I had to ask them about revision so I posed the question “Is revision a necessary evil, do you have to revise your work more than once. Do all authors need to revise?” Mary answered this question quickly with ”Other than a few instances of luck, good work only comes through revision, the best revisers often have reading habits that stretch back before the current age, which lends them a sense of history and raises their standards for quality.” I had one more question I wanted to ask before our dinner came and it looked like the three of them were getting ready to leave. “What is your opinion on the way writing is taught to students?” I asked them. Don responded with “Instead of teaching finished writing, we should teach unfinished writing, and glory in its unfinishedness.” Anne chimed in with "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird." To which Don chuckled and added “And once you can look at your composition program with the realization you are teaching a process, you may be able to design a curriculum which works” at that point our dinner had arrived. I thanked them for their help and for answering my questions, and we said our goodbyes. We ate our dinner, and my night ended with me feeling much better about writing this blog I felt inspired and I with a few ideas on how to write it and what to write about. Plus, I had the opportunity to meet such a hospitable group of writers.
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Bill LewisThis is where I try to make meaning with the assignments for my English Composition class. Archives
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