Lemott's And Brande Reflection

I give this movie a six out of five-star rating. How it managed to keep me on the edge of my seat the entire time is beyond me; I am still in disbelief that I was fully engaged for the entire two hours and twenty-six minutes. Although I had heard many great things about the novel, the film exceeded all of my expectations. The Natural teaches many valuable lessons about perseverance, determination, commitment, karma, relationships, and staying young at heart.

For one reason or another, I'm never able to get the ideas out of my head and on to paper. I can literally go hours looking at the computer ready to start my paper, and the ideas will never come to me. Then, once it is down to the real deal and the deadline around the corner, I stress more trying to put everything together the last minute. In addition, I’m over critical of myself during the drafting process. When it comes to letting my thoughts flow more naturally, I get frustrated with myself when my thoughts are not as organized as I want them to be. In my opinion, my writing process is ineffective because out of the four writing process steps needed to effectively write an essay, I only used drafting. I used it to write my first copy of the draft. It might be imperfect, there may be some grammatical errors, things may be a little out of place - but it's just a rough draft that I can tweak and edit as I go through the writing process. While developing my drafts, I can change and rework each one to be precise. Furthermore, drafting could be the most difficult part of the writing process for many people. For instance, it can be really overwhelming when you have an idea or a topic, but now you have to gather sources, write an outline of how you want an essay to look and figure out how to include enough information to meet word count

In Anne Lamott’s essay, “Shitty First Drafts,” she explains her writing philosophy of just getting ideas down on paper and then editing them later. While some disagree with this method, such as George Dila in his critical response, “Rethinking the Shitty First Draft,” many writers employ this technique to not only better their writing, but to overcome obstacles in the writing process. Even the most successful of writers will say that they actually hate writing, Lamott even compares it to pulling teeth. The intimidation of just starting to write becomes too much and leads writers to procrastinate. For many, an overwhelming, overbearing sense of perfectionism creeps in and creates anxiety and often lead to writer’s block. Everyone writes first drafts, but if a writer allows themselves to let go of all personal judgment and permits their writing to be “bad,” then they will most likely end up with great ideas that they did not even know were inside their heads. Once these ideas are allowed to flow out, then it becomes easier to visualize a realistic way of developing them into a full composition. By writing inferior first drafts, writers can focus on and express their ideas while overcoming the difficulties typically associated with the writing process.

Reading the two articles, Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” and Donald M. Murray’s “Write Before Writing” numerous times made me realize a connection with their writing process that I can relate to. Lamott believes that every good writer, or every writer should write shitty first drafts because the writer will produce better second drafts. In her article, she gives examples of her writing struggles and gives her point of view of the writing process. In order to have a good piece of writing, one must write all of their ideas onto paper. Murray’s article gives some instructions on how to create and start a better writing. He expressed that writers should give time to what they’re going to write about, so that they can understand and make it easy on themselves. After reading the articles, I realized some of the complications I suffer within my writing process, but one strategy that I found helpful is Lamott’s drafting development strategies.

We all have a choice when writing to not complete the task. But is it really going to kill us? We build up this wall and have all of these excuses because we are scared of failing. I believe it’s the end of the world when I’m writing. My palms become sweaty; I look for all types of excuses to procrastinate. After reading this article, I have learned that I’m not by alone. Feeling this way is normal and I can learn to be a better writer. I will take some of Anne’s suggestions and try to quiet the voices in my head. I will begin to write down my ideas as they pop into my head because no one will see all of my rough drafts. This will allow me to take the time to review my work with a clear

While implementing Primary Health Care models, identical to those in metropolitan areas, in a rural setting is not practical, I feel there is an obvious need to improve primary health care in remote areas. This is due to the significant health gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, in rural and remote areas

As a writer, I find myself getting lost. Typically, when I go to start writing I hit a brick wall. It’s as if all my thoughts suddenly escape my mind and I draw a blank. It takes me forever to conjure up some form of a thesis and then takes even longer to figure out what I should write to support it in a way that makes sense. Then, attempting to find a way to organize my ideas and put them together in cohesive paragraphs seems like an impossible task in the moment. It is not uncommon for me to get flustered and just throw something down on the paper because I get anxious seeing how much work is left to do. If I end up going back to read it over prior to submission,

My experiences as a writer have been both very engrossing and strenuous. I have learned a great quantity on both reading and writing, though, I continue to struggle on things that I have learned by this time, making the same mistakes that I do not even realize. Sometimes things are not so easy to understand when reading information, especially if the wording of an article is difficult for example. I love the idea of learning new things everyday. These past years as a writer have been very interesting, and I have learned and grasped many concepts I have been taught along the way.

When I sit to write, I have to think about what I want to say. This is not easy for me as I tend to think about several things at once. Clearing my mind and focusing on the writing task is a challenge in itself. I do not consider myself a strong writer and find it intimidating especially when I know it will be critiqued. The sense of failure when seeing the paper I worked so hard on look like the newest local headline of a recent murder is disheartening for me. I assume I am being overly critical of myself but those feelings seem to be redeemed when I look over the aftermath of what was my wonderful work of mental art.

At DePauw, I want to study english literature in hopes of one day working as an editor at a book publishing company. One might think that this means that reading and writing are naturally easy for me, but in truth I often struggle to get my thoughts gathered and cohesively written on paper. That is why I want to pursue work as an editor rather than a writer. I’m much better at tweaking and critiquing another’s work than producing my own. Much to my displeasure, I also find that I write some of my best work under the pressure of a time crunch. I realize I need to work to get out of that habit this year.

When looking back five weeks ago, I struggled with confidence in my writing. I had much trouble expressing my thoughts on paper. Through time, I feel that I am stronger in my writing abilities and my writing skills have improved greatly. So far, I have learned to be more confident and I no longer struggle with getting started. There have been many instances where I have thought long and hard about submitting a document fearing that it was not good enough. Now, I realize that preparation is the key to great writing. When writing, many times I would write one section of the paper and immediately would start to revise before completely finishing. I soon realized that this method is a very long process and it’s

I’m not a notable writer, nor have I really wanted to join the writing industry. However, I have been interested in other people’s writing. From their deep meanings, content, and different formats/styles. It’s a wondrous creation made from within our imagination and experiences. It has inspired me to write too. I’ve been writing most of my life that it has become a necessity. And now from my past experiences with writing, I try my best to improve my skills as a writer for the future.

I feel the most confident when I revise my writing as I go along with the process; in some ways I feel it helps me organize and put all of my thoughts together. I do agree that the multiple writing drafts are very beneficial however, I think I would do better if I could revise my writing as I work on it and only have one continuous draft.

One great tip while writing is to turn off the perfectionist part in you. There is always a perfect time to turn it on. Guess when? You can turn it on when you're proofreading and editing.

When I'm actually writing, I write as fast as a turtle can crawl. A 2 page essay usually takes me around 6 hours to finish. My teacher once told me to use a process called brainstorming which I tried but found it not very helpful. It's no brain buster for me to start an essay. I just sit down, roll up my sleeve and start jotting down that first sentence. But what comes next is an arduous journey. I usually have thoughts going on in my head and while I'm pondering on which thought to put down on paper, I would forget what they were and I have to start thinking all over again. It is extremely taxing on me mentally. Once I'm stuck, which occurs almost after every sentence, I would reread the whole essay again. Worst yet, I have a fond habit of procrastinating. I can only write in peace and quiet, and that's only possible after everyone's in bed. Then surrounded by the infinity darkness of my room, I would merge with my paper and pen under the dim table lamp voided from the consciousness of space and time. Only when dawn glimpse through my window, would this timeless eternity be shattered. I would wait until night to start my writing trek, and "night" means the night before the assignment is due. This way I can finish the essay in one attempt instead of having to span over