Tell me something I ought to know about you that will help me help you as a writer --your aspirations, your fears and doubts, your literary or journalistic heroes, etc. Don't be afraid to read and bounce off each other's comments. Your own comments should be as clear and complete as you can make them in a long paragraph (150 words or so). Remember this is my introduction to your writing. Impress me. Or at least don't bore me. (First lesson: That's about the worst thing you can do to a reader. What's the worst? Probably to unintentionally confuse him or her.)
Please respond no later than Sunday, January 30, at 4 p.m.
27 comments:
Writing is never really a problem for me-not if I’m writing about myself. It’s the day after; that’s where things get complicated.
I start questioning things. Will people get this? Will they like it? I care too much about being understood. You know what I mean? Then I start making changes to suit my audience (this blog comment is an example of this) and by the time I’m done it looks nothing like I intended. This is a REAL problem.
The things I write I rarely share because I worry my reader will think I’m being provocative on purpose. Or they’ll think, She’s trying too hard! The problem is I don’t write about simple things. I need to write more about trips to the supermarket, and less about car chases.
Elizabeth Wurtzel inspired me to write. I read Prozac Nation when I was fourteen and kept rereading it till the cover ripped off and I had to staple it back on. I loved her voice. It was manic, pessimistic, and very much like my teenage brain.
Marya Hornbacher is another one. Manic. Self reflective. I met her when she came to campus last year. After, I had an adrenaline rush for three days.
If I could, I’d hijack Salman Rushdie’s brain. I’ll be real- books excite me. That’s why I’m English major. But something about Shame…It’s my holy grail of literature. I have a physical reaction to it. Any hardness within me disappears when I’m turning those pages, and I can literally feel the most primal part of myself perking up her ears to listen to the words. When I am through, I feel different, like I just woke up from long nap I didn’t mean to take.
I’m way over 150 words.
Holly --
I think we always need to be cognizant of our audience, not that we should pander to it, but that we might know the best way to reach who we're trying to reach with what we're trying to say. I also think that we can write about complex subjects in simple ways. Indeed, I think that's one of the accomplishments of good writing.
Simple is a good word. I want to keep things simple without losing my voice.
It was the first time I ever left the country, and every single detail fascinated me-- the barely paved main roads, the plaster houses and self-sufficient villages, the abundance of families with sheep, like Americans with dogs. Coming from America, I was penniless, homeless, almost friend-less, and full of resignation about my 19-year-old life in a country where I couldn't keep up. So the simplicity of Ireland wasn’t so much a culture shock, but an abrupt awakening that there was, in fact, more to life than the materialism I was accustomed to.
I kept a journal the two months I was there. It was stolen from a small bookstore on a random day in New York City just before I left, and has a woven pink cover with embroidered flowers. Still on my bookshelf, every lineless page is written on, each story in different strokes. The journal holds the essence of ultimate freedom that I found in writing. It was the beginning of a passion I sometimes ignore, fearing I’ll never live up to my own expectations.
This journal is everything I strive for today, an uncensored release that I know brings my best work. So please, push me to do better, and then push harder.
I'm a Faulkner guy through and through, but I guess that's pretty bad for journalism. Then again, who doesn't like Faulkner except for people too scared to do some close reading?
I'm pretty sure (full?) of myself when it comes to the writing thing, but allotment of time part of it comes hard for me. That, and I'd say, I'm too in love with my own words. It's hard for me tell the difference between my own real, quality sentences, and ridiculously overwrought purple language, but I'm working on it.
Aspirations? Published in the New Yorker and The Paris Review by thirty. Let's see if I get there.
andrew, if you like faulkner, you'd like cormac mccarthy, particularly his blood meridian.
natassia, you stole a blank journal?! that's a story. i'd reverse the orderof what you wrote. did you redeem the theft by what you wrote in the journal?
I am fairly confident in my writing skills, yet I will admit I do not write for leisure like some of my other classmates. I do think sometimes that I can tell a story much better verbally than written, which leads me to shoot down some of my writing ideas. However, I heard about this class last year, and have actually been thinking of stories to write since then, so I am pretty pumped to start getting my ideas down on paper.
My original goal with a journalism degree was to be a sports writer, but since then I broadened my goals to any job in the journalism field. I wanted to have a career that might make a difference to someone, and I felt a sports writer usually doesn't do that. I'd still love to be a sports writer for a big city paper at some point, though.
Mitch Albom and Mike Lupica aren't necessarily my heroes, but their careers started as sports journalists and led them eventually to writing novels like, Tuesdays With Morrie, buy Albom, and Travel Team, by Lupica, that I love. Both novels helped me through some hard times, which showed me being a sports journalist could make a difference, if utilized right.
devon, some amazing writing about sports has been done. ever read joh updike's "hun fans bid kid adieu"? that's just one example.
Thanks for the recommendation, just read it. My favorite line has to be, " the shortstop did a breathtaking impersonation of an open window." Great story.
charlene, everything in a piece of writing is, in a sense, artificial or contrived. it's a made object. it's the spirit and style in which it's made that seems to me significant.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that the art of writing was very fluid and effortless for me, more so than it was for my fellow classmates. I can remember hearing my peers groan and complain when we were assigned some creative writing projects, and although I had some lazy tendencies during that time, I was more than eager to sit at a computer and explore my originality and let my words write themselves. As my writing skills improved throughout the years, I grew accustomed to positive feedback from my teachers about my content and my style.
Then, I came to New Paltz.
Instantly, my confidence and strength were questioned when some of my professors were unimpressed with my assignments. Now, even as a freshman, I was completely understanding of the fact that there would be plenty to learn in my four years on this campus and that criticism was going to be something I’d learn to deal with, but I felt so overwhelmingly defeated.
My first year or two at this campus has been very testing for me as a student and a writer. Digesting criticism has never been my forte, but some specific remarks made by my professors two years ago were very hard pills to swallow. They still linger in the back of my mind to this day, even if I have progressed since then.
I always prided myself during high school that my writing was sincere and authentic; a true branch off of my mind. It is never an easy pill to swallow when are told that your writing–your voice– is inadequate.
When I write in my journal for my own personal escapism, I feel free and comfortable. If I write for someone else, I fear that I am putting myself–as an individual– up for a brutal scrutiny.
My biggest obstacle as a writer isn’t writing from an honest perspective, but dealing with the judgment of others.
While I was reading the instructions for this week’s blog post, one word resonated in my mind: fear. Fear is a very real emotion. Some people may even consider it an instinct. To me fear is what will hold me back from accomplishing my dreams. Every day is a struggle to conquer these fears. My dream is to be a working journalist. I want the job to consume me. I want to be the best at it.
I will always remember my first trip to New York City. I went to a young Hispanic writer’s seminar at the set of the today show. From the minute I stepped into the studio I knew I wanted to be a part of making the news come alive. I saw the bright lights. I tasted life in the big city. The workshop was very inspiring. It also showed me how competitive the journalism field is. I knew that it was not going to be easy. From that day forward I knew what I had a passion for.
I want to be a journalist, but I can’t help but feel like two years of community college is not the ideal preparation for journalism school. I came to New Paltz hoping that I would get better at writing. I know that ultimately it is up to me to work hard, practice, and study a lot. I have been a musician since middle school so I understand that criticism and suggestions are keys to improvement. This experience is exciting. The moment is finally here. I can honestly say I’m not afraid anymore.
I was never good at sports, math and science confused me, and I always hated history. Throughout my education the only subject that appealed to me was English. I liked to read, write, and use my imagination. My bookshelf holds works by Jonathan Safran Foer, Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, and my other literary heroes, but it also has every journal I have kept since age 9. I still keep a journal today and I'm sure I always will, but that writing I do for myself. As a journalist I write for others, or I feel like I do. One of my biggest fears (something I really hope to overcome in this class) is writing an article or story and having someone say they didn't like it. I have been published numerous times in the school newspaper and at Chronogram magazine where I interned, yet this fear of "rejection" still resides within me. I don't think I am a bad writer but I care more about pleasing my readers than pleasing myself.
In class, when the question was posed asking what prompted each of us to consider writing as a sort of calling, and the answer somewhat unanimously was that either a book or the utterance of the words "you're a really good writer," by someone in a semi-authoritative position, had inspired us, a flicker of an idea came to my head.
I don't particularly even like this writing thing.
I can do it. In the end, I am always proud of the work that is done, and people seem to like it. But writing still seems like a chore at times to me, the far end of the spectrum from my voracious reading habits.
This theme of being somewhat good at something, and then just perpetuating the cycle of doing it because you can, not because you'd like to, seems to be a problem of mine.
I played 16 years of soccer because I was really good at it, and continue to play for club teams who ask me as a ringer, despite literally despising myself for stepping foot on the field every time...I hate soccer.
Basically I'm afraid I'm allowing this trend to carry over to my degree and profession.So my biggest fears and doubts come simply in the fact that for an aspiring writer, I don't write much. Hopefully after this class I'll have a more clear answer for myself.
I think this class has a chance to change my stance on writing for one simple reason. Every time I've taken a journalism class here, the problem has never been my writing, simply the style and conforming to journalistic standards that I have trouble with. I literally cannot write a hard-news story for my life.
I feel like a child should be doing it, that it's just throwing facts together recklessly as fast as possible to get the story out.
I want to have a style in my writing, and that seems to be a major problem in all previous classes, hence my excitement for this one.
As an aspiring sports writer, (strictly day job to pay bills, high falutin' novelist by night of course) most of my journalistic heroes are obscure columnists in Sports Illustrated. I'm a huge fan of fanhouse and deadspin, two sports blogs. My two favorite authors would be Roberto Bolano and Tom Wolfe.
Senior year of high school I applied to Purchase College to their Creative Writing program. I sent in a portfolio of two short stories and a collection of poems and I waited for months to find out that they only picked ten people and I was not one of them. It was probably the best thing that ever could have happened to me. However, right after it happened I was scared shitless to write – and stopped – just because of being rejected. Such a waste of time to just give up like that.
Now, I’m studying three different types of writing at New Paltz (Journalism, English, and Creative Writing) and have two blogs, one for just my writing and one for a newspaper upstate. I was always so scared of being rejected and of course I still am, but that’s no reason to stop writing, ever. Plus, I’ve started to push myself to start writing about all of that hidden stuff in the back of my mind I was too scared to reveal. But that’s always the best to write about.
My aspirations? Well, really just to find something to do in this world that has to do with writing. I know that I always want to write but I don’t know where I would like to apply it and am hoping that I can figure it out, possibly from this class.
Oh, and lately I'm just ODing on Richard Brautigan and the adult short stories by Roald Dahl.
I’ve never really had an issue with writing anything academic, like essays or articles. Even if my content seemed to be lacking, the structure was always sound and there was a great variety in the word choice. Personal writing, however, is a completely different thing. I’ve been doing it as long as I can remember, yet I never show it to anyone. The “personal” stuff that I do, even if it just a short story or something, is for my eyes only. I’m terrified of the thought of someone reading it and judging me for it. I know in this class I’m going to have to confront that fear. It’s kind of exciting.
As for journalistic heroes, I’d have to go with Peter Bodo, a famous tennis writer. Simply put, I want his job. I don’t want to steal it from him, but I want to do what he does. He gets to write about tennis all day, every day, and I would LOVE to be able to do that.
I can't recall the last time I thought about what I was going to write before I wrote it. My words don't come from my brain; they come from my fingers. I write on a keyboard on a couch. Sometimes a desk, if pressed for time. I'm on a couch right now.
Language is everything to me. If I couldn't be a writer, I'd be a speaker. Ideally I'd like to be both. One of my favorite things is writing for the radio, reading it, and having someone comprehend the entire picture. There's something so satisfying about getting a message across without relying on facial expressions, etc.
This is really hard for me to admit, but I don't read very often. I mean books and literature. I read the news every day -- whole articles, not just tidbits -- and I read it a lot. But it's hard for me to crack open a book. It might be because more than I love good writing, I love a good point. I love a new thought, or a different perspective. That's why op-eds and editorials are so appealing to me. But words are everything -- if a piece is written well, I always take a step back and exhale.
As for my aspirations, I am working toward becoming a reporter. I want to cover politics and media. After that, I would like to be an editor. I just got an editorial internship at the New York Observer. I start on Tuesday and I'm terrified.
Oh, and my journalistic hero is Dave Weigel from Slate. He's just so dern witty.
Sports are my passion. Whether I’m driving the basketball to the paint after taking an elbow to the mouth or watching the NY Jets take the field each Sunday, my everything is on the field at that moment. From a young age I have constantly participated in competitive sports and it may be the reason that I have developed such a competitive nature in many aspects of my life. My competitive nature has constantly motivated me to become a better writer but the subject has not always been the strong point in my academic repertoire. I constantly second guess my thoughts as I translate my ideal onto the computer screen and when compared to my decision making process while I’m playing sports is almost night and day. The atmosphere of playing in competitive sports games requires split second action and reaction time to ensure that the maximum efficiency of any player. I hope to find that so called writing voice that you were discussing in class and hopefully it will be a voice that people could relate to and enjoy as entertainment.
My release of choice would be music. It can be an upper and a downer. Something about the continuous rhythm makes it easier for me to write.
Aspirations stem from creative influences in my life. My siblings and I were fed Bob Dylan's lyrics along with our baby food. A friend of my parents owned a record store in town and encouraged me to write and critic the music he would give me. Three CDs a week. He helped me shape my writing voice, while supplying a plethora of really superb music. That being said, I'm looking to gain confidence in my writing. I'm afraid of this doubt leading to missed opportunities and regrets, eek! Lester Bangs and Kurt Vonnegut are among my favorites. I also really like radio news broadcasts. I would argue that Lester Bangs also used music as a release, well along with drugs, of course.
p.s. I'm likin' the title for the blog
Writing for me has always been an outlet of self-expression. (not original) In the Journalism classes I have had I strive to have my writing be as creatively true as possible. Being able to create a film in the minds of my readers is my true goal. I want them to be able to feel and understand what the person or person's I'm writing about were going through. I tend to enjoy feature pieces more because of that creative flexibility.
I find that one of the hardest things about writing is getting started. Most of the time I start and restart a piece countless times until I am able to get a real flow going, and the rest of the piece follows.
As for writing inspiration, I can't say I have one style or a person to latch onto. I'm sure someone more familiar with styles and authors could tell me who I may like, but I have had too many influences on my writing to count, or even remember. (does that make me a bad writer? or just not as good as I could be?)
Writing has always been a hobby for me, and I believe it is one that deserves cultivation.
I know you’re probably not going to read this because it’s late, but I’m still going to write. This isn’t just a blog post for you to read, but for me to read, and truly comprehend. I guess I should address the fact that I need to work on my want for writing. I’m a thinker, but when it comes to writing I feel like there is a metal fence that I have to climb and am not willing to. I really want to write all my thoughts, all the time, but I just cant seem to do it. I’m willing to try anything in order to feel the need to actually write. I’m not sure why I can commit to the thought of writing but not the practice of writing. Literary journalism will hopefully enable me to really express my thoughts that I have to come out on paper.
I wrote this comment yesterday but apparently it never posted...
I have complete confidence in myself as a writer. That is, until I sit down to write. That's always been the one thing holding me back, is that when I sit down and try to put the BRILLIANT thoughts I just had on paper, I immediately start to think about how stupid they were. I really just need to find a way to get over that hump that doesn't involve a handle of twelve dollar vodka.
Other than that, I think I tend to be a little superfluous in my writing, and include details that nobody in their right mind would care about. I'll try to work on that this semester.
But one of my strengths I think is writing in my own voice. As sarcastic an asshole as I am, I've been told that it enhances my writing. I hope that's true. But I really want to try to continue using my own voice. I think the best writing has that distinct voice. The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao comes to mind, even though its just a novel, Junot Diaz has such a unique style, it makes the read really refreshing.
Sorry this is late. I feel that I enjoy writing but sometimes my writing lacks direction. I have trouble picking a focus and then I have trouble sticking with it. I feel like I also believe that the longer my writing is the better it is. I will add extraneous sentences, flashier words, and unnecessary details to make my writing seem more "intelligent" because it's longer and flashier. My pieces usually have fourth of the integrity of the original story. Although I am very aware of the problem I never realize the extent of the damage until hours or days later when I am once again looking it over and discovering that I lost my voice and buried my point. I always think that longer is better and the more I add the better it will be. Another problem I have with my writing is trying to change it. Although I know I am making errors and adding bullshit I still am stubborn in changing the style of my writing.
I hope all this can change this semester.
“In writing you work toward a result you won't see for years, and can't be sure you'll ever see. It takes stamina and self-mastery and faith. It demands those things of you, then gives them back with a little extra, a surprise to keep you coming. It toughens you and clears your head. I could feel it happening. I was saving my life with every word I wrote, and I knew it.”
- Tobias Wolff, In Pharaoh’s Army
***
so what's the consensus?
1. writing is hard work for some of us, but easy as breathing for others.
2. rejection sucks.
3. fear is an issue. . . so is motivation.
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