Terry Tempest Williams Why I Write

Many people have a habit of writing differently and it can be good or bad. In the essay “The Importance of Writing Badly,” Bruce Ballenger encourages students to write spontaneously without any rules or “error-free sentences.” He believes that there are no wrong way to express how a person feel. It may not be the correct way to write it but it still allows a person to write continuously. Ballenger allows students to write badly because he is more interested in encouraged thinking.

This chapter is important in a beginning writer’s process because it helps them to understand the basis of writing, connecting with the reader.

Based on his argument using a piece of story from his past, the writer conceptually supported his explanatory point of views on how skills can be developed with a passion of understanding the writer’s intention. I believe that the writer of this article addressed fundamental thoughts that should be useful in the process of reading as a writer, and on how to become a better writer.

In the short essay, “Becoming a Writer,” penned by Russell Baker, he spoke of a memory from his past that later changed his perception of writing. After reading his piece, I reviewed the response questions listed below the essay to further my understanding of the piece. Almost like looking through a list of prompts as Russell did.

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.”

There are many aspects for my mind to conceive while reading the articles why I write by George Orwell and Joan Didion. There are many different factors in triggering an author’s imagination to come up with what they want to write, and why they want to write it. In most writings a purpose is not found before the writer writes, but often found after they decide to start writing.

In Terry Tempest Williams’ essay, “Why I Write,” she uses metaphors to represent the risk of being criticized while writing, but also having the courage to publish anyway. She tells the audience about how writing can be very risky when she states, “I write knowing I can be killed by my own words, stabbed by syntax, crucified by both understanding and misunderstanding” (Williams 7). Williams uses metaphors to represent that people will criticize whether they know the true meaning of what you’re writing or not. In the example related to being killed by own words, you can tell that she is trying to show that any type of criticism will hurt you deeply no matter how much they know you or not. You can also see from the citation that she is trying to show off an example of courage because it says that you’re crucified by both understanding and misunderstanding and that means that they might just be saying what they are, just to say it, but you have to learn to move past it because nevertheless, people will be cruel and you have to persevere through it. Williams displays in this example that writing is a risky experience and everything can hurt you from the quote, “and then I realize, it doesn’t matter, words are always a gamble, words are splinters from the cut glass” (Williams 7). In this instance, Williams uses metaphors to show that writing is a big risk; she also compares it to the words hurting. Her use of metaphors really captivates this idea of risk by comparing it to a gamble and that the words can hurt by the comparison to splinters from glass which can lead into my next point. You also can see from this citation when it talks about it not mattering and that is showing that no matter what anybody says, you should have confidence in yourself and just publish anyway because there are going to people who like it and people who criticize it, but you just have to have confidence in yourself and put it out there and just write to write. “Why I Write,” by Terry Tempest Williams, is an essay that elaborates on the idea that people will criticize and realm of work in the world, but you must learn that despite what people may think, it’s your own personal confidence that is going to help you

My relationship with writing could have culminated into three words; fear, quality, and of course no relationship is complete without excitement. Like any new relationship, emotions can determine the success or demise of the relationship. These emotions all work to the betterment of the writer and the writing relationship, each emotion feeding ever so slightly off one another. Exploring these writing relations reveal the truth where my writing relationship is concerned.

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.”

I 've always liked writing. Even before I knew how to write I would make up stories and pretend to write them down. Each year in high school I 've written a multitude of essays on varying topics. I have selected three of these writings from each of my years in high school to examine as part of this rhetorical analysis of my writing history. As I 've grown older, my writing style has changed and I 've learned more about the world and developed my own personal writing voice more and more.

In Shannon Nichols’ “Proficiency”, she bout her dislikes writing due to her experiences. While I was growing up, I never knew I would not like writing. People remind me of how I had great handwriting and loved to write stories. In college, I continue to struggle in writing essays and it is a challenge for me. Although Shannon Nichols and I despise writing growing up, we both have grown to become successful writers.

Writing may be an enthralling experience for one and a clever way to decompress for another. In general, however, writing has different purposes for a variety of people. “Why I Write,” written in the late 20th century by Terry Tempest Williams, describes various reasons for writing narrated from a female’s perspective. The short essay begins in the middle of the night with a woman engulfed in her own thoughts. She abruptly goes forth by reciting the multiple reasons why she continues to write in her life. Through a variety of rhetorical devices such as repetition, imagery, analogies, and symbolism, Terry Tempest Williams produces an elegant piece of writing that offers the audience insight into the narrator’s life and forces the audience to have empathy for the narrator with the situation she is incurring.

Writing has never really been a passion I possess. I wouldn’t go as far to say I hate it, but, I wouldn’t want to say I love it either. For some, writing is a way to escape their own messed up worlds and creates a new, it’s exciting, adventures, and daring, but, to me, writing is such a tedious task that I as a person do not have the patience to withstand. I haven’t always disliked writing; I actually use to enjoy getting all my thoughts down on paper and coming out with my own little masterpiece my parents could hang on the fridge and boast about to their friends. The worst/best paper I ever had to write was in fifth grade; I had to describe my top three very best friends in five paragraphs or more, then let my elbow partner grade it on a scale from 1-6 ( six being the best.) I put my all into that paper; it was going to be my best paper yet.

In both pieces she wishes to be detached from love and responsibility, yet as the poem progresses, she has a change of heart, almost an epiphany.

Writing has always played a huge role in my life. I’ve been reading writing for as long as I can remember as I have an immense love of reading. This love would grow into a love for writing as well; I still stumble upon journals and writings from my five-year-old self about the happenings in my kindergarten class. As time would go on I would discover academic writing, and how to convey my thoughts on what was the topic of student that particular year or semester in my schooling. Later, writing would become a constant for me, and a comfort; I was known to my friends as always having a journal, and a pen on my person. I learned to write down my feelings and my thoughts, song lyrics that were in my head, reflections for the day. I learned how