The Theme Of Becoming A Writer By Junot Diaz

The forest had gone.... and the Witch looked much younger. Audette opened her eyes and had found herself upon a brow of white lilies. The shape of the shrouded old woman seemed changed. Having turned around, and opened her mantle to the tearing gusts, Meliza revealed to the young lady two streams of shinging blackness and smooth white flesh. Audette stopped in her tracks.

Writing is examined in the first chapter of “Writing about Writing”, a textbook by Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Not only does it examine articulate writing, but specifically the threshold Concepts of writing: “ideas that change the way you think, write, and understand a subject,” (Wardle, Downs 2011). Terms are used to educate readers, these terms are essential for the writer to better understand how to write, and for the reader to better understand composition. Three terms seem to do this; construct, contingency, and rhetoric.

What prerequisites does a piece of writing have to have in order for it to qualify as narrative writing? Chapter 8 in Everyone’s an Author defines a narrative as a genre of writing that follows an order with an apparent beginning, middle, and ending , but it does not have to be in that particular order. Writing in narrative form is a great way for an author to gain authority in his writing. Not until now have I realized how truly common narrative writing is. Narratives can be seen in various kinds of outlets such as: academic fields, media, cultures and communities, and different kinds of genres.

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.

I started writing fiction in elementary school, and never looked back. Tucked away among old report cards and craft projects, my mother still has the multicolored notebook containing my first short story, written when I was in first grade. (It's a treat. I may share it here at some point.) So, when I say that writing in ingrained in me, that it's part of who I am, I mean it.

After examining “Shitty First Drafts”, by Anne Lamott, and “Write before Writing”, by Donald M. Murray, each writing process has some good prospects. Anne Lamott is a little crazy, but passionate writer that can really surprize you. In Anne Lamott 's article “Shitty First Drafts”, she believes that any writer should write a shitty first draft, and that’s how anyone ends up with a better second draft and a “terrific third draft” .Lamott declares in order to be good, the writer needs to first allow for the words and ideas to come flowing out without restriction. Donald M. Murray, an English Professor, that has a different writing process, wrote an article “ Write before Writing” . He explains, Students who are not

The essay “Writing is Easy”, by Steve Martin, is a hysterical essay that is comical in a way that I don’t think the author intended. I think the essay is funny mainly because there is a part that is ironic for me that I can relate to. Although there is other parts in the essay that could be humorous as well, I couldn’t get over one certain section of it. The funniest segment of the story is, “Go to an already published novel and find a sentence that you absolutely adore. Copy it down in your manuscript. Usually, that sentence will lead you to another sentence, and pretty soon your own ideas will start to flow. If they don't, copy down the next sentence in the novel. You can safely use up to three sentences of someone else's work - unless you're

My English Literature major has helped me to achieve an outstanding level of appreciation, enjoyment, and knowledge of both American and British Literature. As a high school AP English student, I struggled through great works like Hamlet and To the Lighthouse. My teacher’s daily lectures (there was no such thing as class discussion) taught me merely to interpret the works as critics had in the past. I did not enjoy the reading or writing process. As a freshman at Loras, I was enrolled in the Critical Writing: Poetry class. For the first time since grade school, my writing ability was praised and the sharing of my ideas was encouraged by an enthusiastic and nurturing professor. Despite the difficulty of poetry, I enjoyed reading it.

It was two days before Christmas, when Josephine opened the door to her 12 year old son’s room. Chay was the oldest of her four children, and the one she related to most. As Josephine sat down on the edge of the bed, Chay opened his eyes slowly. The dim light that seeped through the partially opened door revealed tears in his mother’s eyes.

Essay 1 was about a Mission Statement that I had to write for myself something personal which explains something that is truthful and explains who and what I am and what I am strving to achieve when searching my name “Brian Mamuyac”. What I did to prepare for this assignment was that our instructor gave us the prompt ahead of time and I created a rough draft and when we had to meet up in the computer room I just had to type up my essay and turn it in. The challenging part of this essay would be understanding the prompt because I had no idea what a Mission statement was and what I was supposed to do. For Essay 1 I was marked down for redundancy, repetition, grammar and spelling and also clutter. What I can do to prevent the errors in my next version would be to understand the prompt and directions more and have more ideas to write about myself.

Laurel nodded her head when she heard that Zinda would be willing to aid her in her efforts of keeping the city running smoothly. “With that attitude I think Ryder will love you.” She stated with a small laugh, her head shook from side to side. “Even before the outbreak I always had a hard time sleeping.” She reached her right hand up and placed it against the back of her neck, rubbing at it. “So it really doesn’t bother me all that much.” She nodded her head. She knew what Zinda said was true, that she should try and sleep more but that seemed easier said than done. She really tried to sleep at night sleep just seemed to elude her, it was never there when she really need it. Like the night they got back from the Farmhouse, all she wanted to do was fall asleep and forget the whole events that had taken place there. Sadly that didn’t happen, she stayed up all night thinking about how she could have done thing differently, that she should have stayed with Kate.

Drenched and frozen, only the warmth from their mothers’ kept the young creatures sustained. The trees’ limbs hung low from the weight of the swampy atmosphere; causing the joyous ambience of the forest to restrain her passion.

A blue house, red shutters, and a white picket fence with a border collie. Three kids are running around in the front lawn up on a hilltop. That is what the American dream is right? The American dream is truly in the eye of the beholder. One might think that the American dream is an apartment in downtown Los Angeles, but others might want the smell of fresh cut grass in a small suburb. It’s whatever the person who is working for it wants it to be. As we can see in the play, all of the main characters might be striving for an American dream, but none of them are striving for their same American dream.

In the third section of the book, Stephen King talks about more about the writing process. In this part, he describes how he feels about writing. Immediately, King establishes the fact that writing is a tedious and time consuming process. However, it is a portion of his life that brings him happiness and healing. To King, writing is a form of magic; something that is a creative outlet for him. In the first segment, labeled C.V., King says, “Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around. Here, King opens up to speak more about his sentiments towards the art.

Since before the beginning of this creative writing course, I have always struggled to find a point to writing. By this, I mean that I always felt that having great skill and talent was what was required to be a writer, let alone a great one. From this point, I felt there was no need to continue my writing as I felt that in a sense it just wasn't good enough. However, reading the article "A Way of Writing", I found new hope. Here was a writer who says things such as "I must be willing to fail. If I am to keep on writing, I cannot bother to insist on high standards. I must get into action and not let anything stop me, or even slow me much"(Stafford) and quotes that writers don't necessarily have any special talent. The article "Why I Write" instilled further optimism through the authors view on just being a writer, not focusing on being good or bad. I found her words in which she writes "entirely to find out what I'm