Words of Wisdom?

Anne Lamott's segment on 'Shitty First Draft,' in her book on writing, Bird by Bird, she describes the excellent detail of how far down the toilet a piece of writing is allowed to be because nobody is every going to care what it was like. Taken to heart, I could always look back on my first writings for anything and easily see the mountains of problems and complications that they had. I would always, consequentially, tend to delete (I can't say that I had too many essays that I chose to handwrite) the majority of the work seeing it as just plain, well, shitty. I've believed for a long time now that a first draft is never intended to be remotely perfect, but reading that Lamott puts it that it's actually intended to be bad is fantastic. If I think back far enough, if I ever thought my first drafts were anything but bad, I probably would have been much better off as the world's youngest genius a while ago. While I'm still working on the prodigy inside me, I do enjoy the idea that my first draft can be terrible. With no intentions of making it this way, of course. In my personal narrative, I do believe that I did not, in any form, achieve a perfect first draft. More than likely the only difference from Lamott is the fact that peer editing is going to happen and if I wrote, 'Well so what, Mr. Poopy Pants,' I may not be able to come to class without an amazing amount of embarrassment. Beyond that, though, I do like to know that this first draft isn't, by any means, my final draft. My piece isn't polished, and I feel that's what Lamott really wants to get across. There's an animated movie, by my favorite animator Hayao Miyazaki, called "Whispers of the Heart," (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisper_of_the_Heart_(film)) which depicts this concept perfectly by comparing the main character's first draft to that of a rock. The rock, however, hides a true gem inside of it that is needs to be cracked open and then polished. I've long felt that way towards my writing pieces after seeing the film. I'm always trying to polish the best gem ever for my writing, but I know that I'll always need to start with the rock first. Lamott's proposal that once you learn, you can pretty much trust the process, is true to the 'more or less' part. While you can learn and become a greater writer and enhance your pieces, no two pieces will ever be written exactly the same way. The statement, I believe, applies then to every writer out there. To keep writing is to keep improving. There will never be a single thing set in stone for any writing, no pun intended. However that stone is needs to be broken open to find the gems inside and polish a piece literature. Lamott worded it that all good writers write 'shitty first drafts,' and I couldn't agree more.

Narrative Criticism, Anyone?

Due to the curiosity that overwhelmed me, I couldn't help but choose to read "Tour of Duty," by Denise Grollmus as my memoir to critique. The basic idea would be the many faces that being on tour with a rock band can hold. Being an excellent memoir, however, it holds a candle that shows flames that both give light and darkness. A light to show what a grand adventure can do for you, as well as the darkness to show what it can do TO you. That warm atmosphere is depicted as both burning and gentle in certain moments of the piece. All facets of life could use the meaning shown with this piece, even if I, personally, believe that the audience was no person other than herself in an almost 'showing' kind of way to remind herself that what she was 'stuck' in was something she truly did want to remove herself from because, behind the negative atmosphere she did wish to be where she was. The memoir is filled with her personal pathos, a passion for her life that needed to have an end. The feelings put into the art were very broad; an alcoholic hot and steamy life combined with dreamy, soft moments where life wasn't so bad. The beginning throws out the idea of alcohol and drugs, which is tossed back and forth throughout the whole piece in the most negative of lights to show that it was easily a downside to the adventure. Although, the author honestly speaks outright and holds nothing back by showing that she did, in-fact, partake in drinking heavy enough to give herself hangovers. In my opinion, the inclusion of the eleven year old girl with the gnawed leg is strangely intriguing, not necessarily by the lesson learned, but the fact that Grollmus did indeed learn and grow on the journey. The selective dialog went hand in hand with showing which parts of the journey impacted her emotions deeply. Many times where speech is involved related to feelings of home and peace. It seemed that, during the passage of time, she seemed to want to be at home, in a family that eats warm eucalyptus leaves. Conversely, the dialog also focused heavily on negative events during the trip that showed the evils of the journey itself. The transitions were worked in such a fashion that the storyline was similar to that of an epic; where it starts in the center, goes to the beginning, and then finishes afterwards. The transitions beyond that were flawless, leading one hangover into another so that I couldn't point out to you any serious time jumps other than the time leaps that put the story into a general feeling to start and continued with that feeling. A feeling which I can honestly say made me feel like I, myself, was stuck in a "Tour of Duty."

Non-Generic First Journal Entry

Unlike most college students at this point, this will be the first college 'paper' that I'll have written. The previous semester consisted of two computer science courses, two math classes, and a basic physics; none of these classes required or even suggested at the idea of writing so I am more than likely quite a bit rusty at this since I haven't written anything since High School. Lucky for me, however, I became a fairly proficient writer during my last English class in high school where writing papers was a massive foundation for the class. Generally speaking, my fortes in writing are probably my writing style along with the subjective content. I would put down grammar as another forte, but honestly word processors do a darned good job at that so I wouldn't feel right saying that. Conversely speaking, my writings are, obviously, far from perfect and I can't say I'll honestly ever be able to say that they would be. I lack quite a bit of organizational skills, both in writing and outside of it. The best I can hope to do is make outlines of things and try and follow that to stay on due course. Procrastination has a lot to do with it, but all I can say that does is keep me up until six in the morning working on a paper. Going beyond that I'd have to point out another flaw is a certain inability to withhold information and not just 'cloud' write. For all of my imperfections I do enjoy a certain pride in being able to overcome them. No particular means or ideas help me more with this than just writing and editing my works to see what would make my writings a touch better. That being said this class should help me improve greatly, seeing as the basis is, in fact, writing. Overall I see vast improvement as long I really try to improve (of which I will).

Being the son of an English teacher, I can't start to express the obviousness that is my fundamental inspirations. Books of all sorts were showered upon my since I was born and so it wasn't hard to say that I've had many experiences that belay my connection to the writings and works of many great authors. Though, I'm not saying this in retaliation against my mother who wanted me to read and learn how to write well. This wasn't intended to be a discrete section of hate, more of just a description to better know where I come from. I easily can say that I have always read for pleasure, although I can't say that I often write for pleasure. It seems I enjoy to get sucked up into another author's world as opposed to my own. I've read countless numbers of grand works, but there are only a few that manage to inspire me as great as the four great European Epics. Paradise Lost, http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/book_1/, is easily my favorite among them and I would have to admit my favorite book ever. The subtleties of diction will always inspire me to continue to become a better write so that I can, perhaps, write papers with as much power as Milton wrote with. That being said, the subtleties in poetry also tend to inspire me to write without bounds. Edgar Allen Poe's works tend to be my favorite, but I can't put off others such as Frost or Byron as having grand numbers of verse written to perfection. However, "Hollow Men, " (http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/784/) by T.S. Eliot is easily my favorite poem ever that inspires me, more than any other, to write with meaning.