Kevin Roozen's 'Tracing Trajectories Of Practice'

To approach writing, Elbow explains that “…Writing calls on two skills that are so different that they usually conflict with each other: creating and criticizing.” (7) That means writing requires the ability to come up with ideas yourself and also the ability to criticize and refine

In her article “I Stand Here Writing”, Nancy Sommers examines the writing process and formulating ideas for writing in a more empirical manner. She states that before she found her creative zeal/ niche her writing was often undisciplined, unmethodical, and sloppy. Sommers reveals that in college she was less known for her writing and more for her long hair and misapplication of phrases. She found her true inspiration while writing her Senior Thesis on Emerson’s “Eloquence.” Throughout the entire essay, Sommers provides the reader with advice about writing. A key point that she mentions is, “If I could teach my students about writing it would be to see themselves as sources, as places from which ideas originate, to see themselves as Emerson’s transparent eyeball, all that they have read and experienced-the-dictionaries of their lives circulating through them.”

However, most of the time I will despise writing and try to avoid it as much as possible. The reason I do not like writing is, because I frequently have so much to say and I cannot grasp a way to organize everything. When I write for enjoyment I will mainly write about the thoughts in my head and nonchalantly caring if it makes sense or not. It’s like the difference between a doodle and a drawing. A doodle is just a “whatever” picture. It is just randomly drawn and it won’t matter if the lines are straight or not. In a drawing everything has to be perfect and neat. I enjoy to “doodle” write and just write my thoughts out about anything, I am afraid to publicly say. I’ve been taught to write by having teachers just tell me what they want me to write. The part about me learning to write I kind of have taught myself using some of the knowledge that previous teachers have given me. Not only, but I also, face several challenges as a writer like the lack of creativity and writing descriptively. When I write, I like to just state my point or main idea, but I struggle with describing it in depth and explaining my main idea as specific as possible. Some writers make a drama and explain everything so clearly and their emotions, however I am not that type of

The process in which people think is different for everyone. Everyone has a different way of how they can focus or be creative. For writing, there are many different steps that each writer goes through in order to create good content. In the short story, “So, You Want to Be a Writer? Here’s How.” written by Allegra Goodman, she explains how to become a good writer. Also, in the short story she describes her writing process. Goodman’s writing process is similar to a lot of people's writing process. In a writing process, writers go to a certain location, brainstorms, and completes to write a satisfactory paper.

Everyone knows what writing is to one extent or another, but we all have different definitions of how it should be done and varying degrees of seriousness about the art. We all have a process of writing, but each is unique to ourselves and our own experiences. Annie Dillard and Stephen King are two well known authors who have published many pieces, two of which describe how they view the writing process and let their readers get a peek of what goes on through their minds when they write. These two pieces are Dillard’s The Writing Life and King’s “What Writing Is.”

In my English 1010 class, I have learned to do a number of things through writing essays. I have written a Literacy Narrative, a Discourse Community Analysis, and a Writing Research essay. Firstly, I have learned to identify how an author’s purpose, audience, genre, and context determine effective writing. The purpose of the literacy narrative was to help me understand myself better as a writer (Jones 1). My teacher was the intended audience of the narrative. The genre of the narrative was non-fiction by cause of it being about my experience as a writer. The context of writing made my writing more interesting and more effective. Knowing those elements helps you to compose writing that is more effective due to you needing to know what you need to write about and who is receiving your writing. I displayed these skills by going into detail about my experiences with reading and writing through my life. As shown in the following sentence from my literacy narrative I shared how fun and exciting it was when my second-grade class received the opportunity to write a book, A Book of Future Astronauts, “Everyone in the class was truly excited to be writing our own book,” (Writing is Good).

Everyone has different ways of interpreting what their writing and artistic process is. Both of these processes are similar in many ways, but also different depending on what kind of artist or writer you are. For this paper, I interviewed several different people, some who are great artists, some who are great writers and some that do not like either. I also examined both of my processes comparing how they are similar and different. There were a couple questions I asked myself and each person I interviewed so it would be easier to compare each of their processes. The four main questions were asking if they liked having food or coffee during this process, if the processes were similar or different, and to define the two processes according to their own definition.

“To write to be a writer, I have to trust and believe in myself as a speaker, as a voice for the images. I have to believe that can communicate with images and words that I can do it well. A lack of belief in my creative self is a lack of belief in my total self and vice versa- I cannot separate my writing from any part of my life. It is all one” (95).

In the same article, Elizabeth St. Pierre provides what I consider to be a systematic process to writing; she posits that, “writing is thinking writing is analysis, writing is indeed a seductive and tangled method of discovery” (p. 967). So, throughout the process of writing these assignments,

"To write to be a writer, I have to trust and believe in myself as a speaker, as a voice for the images. I have to believe that can communicate with images and words that I can do it well. A lack of belief in my creative self is a lack of belief in my total self and vice versa- I cannot separate my writing from any part of my life. It is all one" (95).

Patricia McKissack once narrated, “It was much more than bricks and stone - It was an idea.” This quote shows how McKissack thought about conditions. Patricia McKissack became famous for her books and had countless accomplishments in her life. She also had several influences before starting her writing. After taking a look at the life and works of Patricia McKissack, it is apparent that this writer deserves recognition as a profound and important American author.

Chapter four from Writing and Revising talks about strategies for generating ideas. Some of these ideas include brainstorming, freewriting, seeking motives, and even brainstorming with a group. Brainstorming with a group works much like brainstorming alone. When you brainstorm alone you start with an idea or a phrase and then proceed to write down anything you could possibly think of that goes with that idea or phrase; however, brainstorming with a group allows you to compare and contrast your ideas with a group of people. This group activity will allow you to see how others brainstorm their ideas and could help you with your next assignment. Freewriting is another strategy for generating ideas. When using freewriting as a way to generate ideas

Lamont argues about how begin writing our thoughts for an assignment as a “shitty first draft”. She explains that even good writers go through the same process. Sitting down, thinking for at least 10 minutes, breathing deeply and they start typing. One of the fear that she mentioned was that if she ever desired for a car to run over her, she would worry that what she wrote as her shitty first draft, someone else would read it and believe that the accident was a suicide. Lamont suggest that each person starts by writing something down on paper because she explains all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. Lamont says that one of her friend said that the first draft us the down draft. The second draft the one you fix up. And the third

Deepak Chopra once said, “Our minds influence the key activity of the brain, which then influences everything; perception, cognition, thoughts and feelings, personal relationships; they’re all a projection of you” ("Influence Quotes"). Many novels, books, and even magazines are influenced by the author’s own life. Albert Camus and Harper Lee are great examples of how their own experiences affect their writing.

      The writing self isn't something that can be evoked at will, it must be coerced through a series of events, to appear.  Its components are placed together neatly inside the unconscious, waiting to be released.  However when it is trusted to come forth, it is no longer coherent.  A clear picture of what was inside before its unveiling has to be pieced back together.  As we write continually a larger amount of our writing self comes out.  This extension of ourselves being released from our unconscious is the process of the formation of the writer, to the writing self.  The writing self has characteristics that we are unable to control but it determines our writing style.  It grows with every word we write and in this way it is fed and nourished, becoming stronger.  Once it is developed it is its own entity, its own separate being.  It is able to come forth, to be what the writer feels can only be realized through its thoughts and words.