The focus of this blog is on the process of writing and how to compose a solid piece of work by following the process. I spoke with three very talented, experienced writers who use the process themselves, Don Murray, Mary Karr, and Anne Lamott. In this discussion there will be advice on how to start a piece of writing, or defeat writer’s block, and the importance of how using writing process skills will improve your writing over time.
It's very brisk outside tonight at the Blue Cross Riverrink. The air is so cold its turned my fingers a faint shade of purple. I decide to take a break from the cold and head inside the cabin lodge for a hot chocolate. I walk around the rest of the cabin when I approach three intelligent individuals deep into their conversation, also sipping hot chocolates. I politely introduce myself to the three individuals sitting down by a fire pit only to find out that I am in the presence of some famous authors Don Murray, Mary Karr, and Anne Lamott. Getting started with my writing and developing a process about it has always been an issue for me, so I decided to sit down by the fire as well and ask the authors some questions I had in hopes they may be able to give me some advice. The writers and I started with the first topic of our discussion on how writing is not easy, and getting started with writing is difficult for us all. Mary proceeded to ask me, “Martina do you think of yourself as a good writer?” and I then answered her by saying, “Actually Mary I do believe that I am a good writer, I just always think of myself as too critical and it's always hard for me to start my writing pieces”. Mary said she understood where I was coming from and that she experiences the same things I do. Mary replied with saying, “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.”. I replied by saying, “Ah Mary I see what you’re saying. You have to just write whatever first comes to mind and just keep writing down your flowing thoughts as they come, even if they may not make sense at first?. Mary nods in positive recognition and says, “Yes that’s exactly right. In the beginning, when there are zero pages, you have to cheer yourself into cranking stuff out, even if it lands on the cutting room floor.”. Anne adds to the topic by saying, “I agree with Mary, she makes a really good point. For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts. The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later.”. I said to Anne, “So you just have to be childish at first with your writing knowing that only you are seeing it before it becomes edited, so you can just allow your thoughts to start flowing”. Anne replies to me, “Yes that’s correct. Just get it all down on paper because there may be something great in those six crazy pages that you would have never gotten to by more rational, grown-up means.”. We all look in Don’s direction, towards the opposite side of the fire, as he begins to give his input on what we’re talking about. Don says, “Mary mentioned before that letting your mind roam on paper is part of the writing process. I also believe that writing is a process. It is the process of discovery through language. It is the process of exploration of what we should know and what we feel about what we know through language. It is the process of using language to learn about our world, to evaluate what we learn about our world, to communicate what we learn about our world.”. I say to Don, “Wow that’s a really insightful point, so you’re saying that writing is a process of discovery through language? We can find out more about ourselves and our environments through the language we create in our writing?”. Don replies, “Yes very well said, Martina. That’s a very clear way of restating what I meant. I also agree with what Anne had said before about shitty first drafts. I believe drafting is a very important and effective process to develop solid pieces of writing. Instead of teaching finished writing, we should teach unfinished writing, and glory in its unfinishedness.”. The writers and I take the finals sips of our hot chocolate by the dwindling fire as closing time at the Riverrink is near. We finish up our discussion by talking about the final topic of the night, something all writers find tedious, the revision process. I go around the fire and ask each of the writers their finals thoughts on revision. I start with Don this time and he makes a great point about rewriting during the revision process. Don says, “Rewriting is reconsideration of subject, form, and audience. It is researching, rethinking, redesigning, rewriting--and finally, line-by-line editing, the demanding, satisfying process of making each word right.”. I move on to Mary and she makes a valid statement about editing during the revision process. Mary explains, “For me, the last 20 percent of a book’s improvement takes 95 percent of the effort--all in the editing. I can honestly say not one page I’ve ever published appears anywhere close to how it came out in first draft. A poem might take sixty versions. I am not much of a writer, but I am a stubborn little bulldog of a reviser.”. Don and Mary both give good advice about revision, but I move on to Anne, who has one last point to make about revision as well. Anne mentions that although drafts are their own component of the writing process, they also are a significant part of revising your work too. Anne explains why revising your work through three different drafts is a substantial key to reaching a finished piece. Anne states, “A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft--you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft--you fix it up. You try to say what you have to say more accurately. And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it’s loose or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy.”. I express to the three, “ To conclude, I take it that revision is the most important part of the writing process in all three of your opinions because it helps you reconstruct and fine tune your work each and every time you do it so that it appeals to both you and your audience to keep everyone reading on.”. All three writers nod their heads at my statement and say in an excited unison, “Exactly!”. A message comes on the loudspeaker from across the lodge and announces that the Riverrink is now closed and to please make your way to the nearest exit. I thank Mary, Don, and Anne for their time tonight, express my appreciation for them giving their advice to help make me a better writer, and shake each of their hands in a sincere manner. I then head out the exit towards my car realizing that this was one of the best experiences during my career as an aspiring writer.
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In “My Name is Margaret” a story is told about a young African American servant named Margaret whose grandmother back in Stamps “had owned the only Negro general merchandise store since the turn of the century”. Margaret works very hard for a white woman, Mrs. Viola Cullinan, and along the duration of her time at Mrs. Cullinan’s meets another young servant by the name of Miss Glory. Mrs. Cullinan’s old lady friends one day explain to Mrs. Cullinan that she needs to change Margaret’s name to Mary because Margaret is too long of a name to say. Margaret overhears this and is angry, but of course cannot say anything about it. Until the end of the story, Miss Glory is the one who helps comfort Margaret about her new name change. There is a main emotion of anger from racism throughout this story in which I can connect with in this blog post. In my narrative scene below I will be writing about an incident I experienced at work, very similar to Margaret’s, that caused anger within myself as well.
It was another ordinary night at work and my shift felt normal just like it always has. My employees were working hard and my area was running smoothly as it always does on Friday nights. I was in a good mood from earlier in the day, and I had a decent sized smile on my face. Until about two hours into my shift when I received a piece of information that had really sent my night into an uproar. I was pulled aside by my boss and was told that a woman needed to speak to me for a few minutes. My boss stood quietly in the distance behind me while this woman spoke to me. I was already feeling intimidated by the suspense of not knowing what words were going to be spoken from this woman’s mouth and it didn’t help that she didn’t introduce herself either. Here I was a sitting duck just wondering who this mystery woman was. Mystery woman jumped right into the situation saying an employee of mine had filed a complaint with the Human Resources Department about me being discriminative. She told me the complaint had been filed after this employee noticed I was sending a certain employee home early due to her skin color being white, and then preceded to ask me if I believed this was true. My palms were a clammy kind of sweaty and my face felt very warm. I could feel my heart start beating slowly and steadily, but then quickly picking up pace to a very hard pounding sensation deep in my chest cavity. In this moment I could tell from feeling these specific changes in my body that I was completely enraged, not at mystery woman for breaking the news to me, but at my employee for filing this complaint in the first place. I had stepped back for a moment and all you could see was my chest puffed out like the Big Bad Wolf’s, because I needed to take a deep breath momentarily to calm down so I didn’t respond in the wrong way from being angry. My heart returned to its normally paced beat after that deep breath and I was then able to calmly respond back to the mystery woman, “No ma’am I do not believe this to be true”. Mystery woman then thanked both me and my boss for our time and walked her way out into the distance. I then took another deep breath and wiped the stress provoked sweat beads from my forehead and watched them fly to the floor. I also was able to lick the salty sweat beads from my upper lip in the most intense relief I ever felt that this moment was finished. My boss before returning back to her normal responsibilities noticed the distressed look on my face and asked if I was alright after the whole conversation. I had chuckled in disbelief that all this had just happened and replied to her saying that I was a little shaken up, but alright, and just glad that experience was finally over. Below you will read my responses to the Proust Questionnaire. The Proust Questionnaire is a short 35 question survey created by French writer Marcel Proust during the twentieth century. The purpose of the Proust Questionnaire is to answer all 35 questions honestly and to the best of your ability in order to help reveal true character of oneself.
__1.__What is your idea of perfect happiness? My idea of perfect happiness is doing something you truly love to do and being able to do it well. __2.__What is your greatest fear? My greatest fear is not being able to do well in my future. __3.__What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? The trait I most deplore in myself is never having enough confidence to believe I can succeed in what I do. __4.__What is the trait you most deplore in others? The trait I most deplore in others is the inability to have empathy for someone in need. __5.__Which living person do you most admire? I most admire my mother. I admire my mother most because she has overcome great setbacks over the years in order to build a worthwhile life for herself and her family. __6.__What is your greatest extravagance? My greatest extravagance is my car. My car was gifted to me by my father during junior year of high school for having good grades. __7.__What is your current state of mind? My current state of mind is worried. I am always worrying about things whether it be school, my job, or even my family. __8.__What do you consider the most overrated virtue? I consider honesty to be an overrated virtue. __9.__On what occasion do you lie? I cannot really remember the last occasion I lied on because I do not lie very often due to not being good at lying. __10.__What do you most dislike about your appearance? I most dislike the appearance of my nose. I feel like it is too big and too wide for my facial shape. __11.__Which living person do you most despise? I most despise Taylor Swift because I think she is a really annoying human and I don’t think she can sing. __12.__What is the quality you most like in a man? The quality I like most in a man is when he respects his mother and other women. __13.__What is the quality you most like in a woman? The quality I like most in a woman is confidence. __14.__Which words or phrases do you most overuse? The phrases I most overuse are “wait, what?”, “oh my god stop!”, and “I’m sorry”. __15.__What or who is the greatest love of your life? My family, my dogs, and my boyfriend are the greatest loves of my life. __16.__When and where were you happiest? I was happiest about two years ago during Christmas time when I was celebrating the holidays with my Puerto Rican family down in Naples, Florida. __17.__Which talent would you most like to have? I would like to have the talent of singing and dancing well the most. __18.__If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? If I could change one thing about myself I would change my eye color from blue to green. __19.__What do you consider your greatest achievement? My greatest achievement would be getting the chance to experience playing division two collegiate softball. __20.__If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? If I were to die and come back as a person or a thing I would love to come back as a dog. __21.__Where would you most like to live? I would most like to live somewhere warm, sunny, and close to a beach, preferably in Florida. __22.__What is your most treasured possession? My most treasured possessions are my cellphone, my bed, my dogs, and my car. __23.__What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? I prefer not to answer this question. __24.__What is your favorite occupation? My favorite occupations are nurses and early childhood education teachers. __25.__What is your most marked characteristic? I think my most marked characteristic is that I have a really big heart. __26.__What do you most value in your friends? I most value that my friends are always honest with me, they listen to me well and make the best effort to help me solve my problems, and they are just overall good company to be around. __27.__Who are your favorite writers? My favorite writers are Maya Angelou, John Green, and Nicholas Sparks. __28.__Who is your hero of fiction? My favorite heroes of fiction are Spider-man and Wolverine. __29.__Which historical figure do you most identify with? I identify most with Walt Disney. __30.__Who are your heroes in real life? My mother and father are my heroes in real life. __31.__What are your favorite names? Chloe, Drew, Raymond, Melissa, Courtney __32.__What is it that you most dislike? I most dislike disrespectful people, selfish people, and people without manners. __33.__What is your greatest regret? My greatest regret is not going to visit my grandmother in the hospital the day she passed away. __34.__How would you like to die? I would like to die peacefully or by natural causes. __35.__What is your motto? My motto is “just keep swimming”. |
Martina ZuppoThis page will be used for me to express my thoughts through writing expressively to a collection of blog posts. Archives
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