Sorry this post is coming semi late due to the fact that we didnt have class last week. I continued working on reading Bird by Bird. This book has been an awesome change from poetry. I learned a lot from all the poetry packets and books that we were reading for the first four or five weeks. Poetry is just not my favorite thing to write about. I have a really hard time not just analyzing the poems that I had to read, but I also had a hard time trying to express what i wanted to write in poetry form. So while i did learn a lot from the poetry section, I am happy that we have finally moved on.
Bird by Bird i think has been a great read for me and for everyone else in this class. It not only shows us tips and pointers on writing and the writing process, but it also shows us what is wrong with people in writing today. No one wants to take the time to earn how to do all of the necessary things to make sure there work is right. People just want to skip all the hard stuff and get there things published. The class that she is teaching in this book is unbelievable. I get that some of these people think that they are accomplished writers and dont need any help, they just want to find an agent. but when a published writter is explaining that you have work to do and trying to teach you what she knows, I think it would be wise to listen. This book has taught me a lot and im really happy that we got the chance to read it in this class.
I also got started on reading the first fiction packet. This was definately a good change from learning how to write, like we did when reading Bird by Bird. The first fiction packet had a couple of things in it that I enjoyed reading and that I found rather interesting. A section called, Mystery Stories, written by Sharon Krinsky, stuck out to me. I enjoyed reading these because they are example, in my opinion, of the shortest a story can really be but still went into a decent amount of detail in what they were describing. Some of the small sotries names were, The Indian, The Talking Cat, The Red Coat, and poetry, just to name a few. All this page was filled with the titles of the story and four to five lines under it to explain the title. in my opinion, this isn't a very good way to write stories or descriptions because they are simply to short. Even though it isn't the best way to write short stories, in my opinion, it deffinately is a unique way to write them.
Another story that I liked from the first fiction packet was called, Ungulated, by Walter Bargen. This is another story that isn't very long. It is only half a page long but is a great short story. It is about a woman named Stella who has a garden. The garden is great but some deer decide to eat the peas and other things in the garden. To solve this problem Stella decides to drive some posts in the ground around the garden and wrap some wire fense around the posts, this way deer can't get in her garden anymore. This is a great example of a short story that has a main character, a problem involving that character, and a solution. It isn't very complexed or special but it is a great format to writing a story. I also enjoyed the way that this story was written because in the short amount of writing that the author used, he went into extreme detail about what was going on and about the surrounding. It is almost like he paints a picture in your head with the words that he uses. It was a fun short story to read. Fiction is a great way to explore many different types of writing and I look forward to learning more as we press on into other different types of readings and stories.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Week 4 (2/6-2/12)
Bird by Bird
This week I was extremely happy to shift gears away from poetry and get to read and write about a book that is about writing and life. While reading poetry and writing my own poetry has been extremely enlightening, it feels good to change pace and read something different. I was going to touch on the packets that we also read this week, but I decided it was better to just stick to one main topic. With this said, we will stick with writing about the novel we read called Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott. It is a book that is mainly about instructions on writing and on life. After reading the first half of the book, I have learned a great deal. I find myself very enlightened about the everyday thoughts and actions of a writer. The reading really opened my eyes to the struggles of being a full time author/writer, and writing novels for a living.
I found that the Introduction at the beginning of the book was very important and a great way to start the book. Anne Lamott essentially describes her entire childhood all the way up to writing this book. She writes about the struggles that her father had as a writer, along with the struggles that she faced. She also writes about the successes they had writing and publishing their own books. I thought this was excellent. Not only did this section make Anne Lamott seem much more human, but seeing the struggles she faced and overcame makes her seem that much more credible. How in depth she was in the introduction about her own life was very enlightening as well. She spoke about how all her dad’s friends were also writers and they would all do heroin and smoke weed all the time. Then a couple pages later she discusses how all her dad’s friends that were writers ended up committing suicide. I also learned that many writers face these problems. I got the impression that writing for a living drives people crazy. I also enjoyed when she talked about how publishing a book won’t make a writer happy, that it is the process of writing the book that makes a writer feel like he or she is living up to something. Writing and working on a book makes the writer feel better and more alive than anything else.
A little deeper into the story in the section called short assignments, she talks about one of her favorite quotes. On page 18, she quotes, “Writing a novel is like driving your car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” She then says you don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. She then says that this is some of the best advice about writing or life that she has ever received. I couldn’t agree with her more. This is a great quote and excellent advice. A little later in the book she talks about perfectionism. On page 32 she writes, “Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist’s true friend.” I totally agree with this statement. Being a perfectionist will only lead to being very lonely. If you expect everything and everyone to be perfect then you and others will never meet your expectations. Nothing will ever be complete or good enough. The world is filled with imperfection. So even if a perfectionist was given the entire world, it wouldn’t be enough.
Finally, I found another section of the book hit home with me. It is on page 93 and is called, “How Do I Know When I’m Done”. This section appealed to me because I find myself asking this same question when I write. The section is only two pages long but gives a lot of insight into when to call it quits. On page 93, Anne Lamott writes, “I don’t quite know how to answer it”. It shows us that even published writers are never done correcting their work. She goes on to write, “There will always be more you can do, but you have to remind yourself that perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor”. I also have this problem when writing. I’m not a perfectionist and am normally happy with my writing in the end, but I always think there is something more I can correct or fix. This section, while short, has shown me that you have to finish things and move on to the next part. If you stay stuck on one section you will never get anything done. Reading the first half of Bird by Bird has taught me a lot about writing and how to help myself write better. Hopefully the second half is as insightful as the first half.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Week 3 (1/30-2/5)
City Eclogue
This week was even harder for me then previous weeks. Not in terms of writing my own poems, but trying to understand the poems that others write. I got used to one type of poetry from Shakespeare and other sonnet poem writers, but when I had to read City Eclogue I had to get used to reading and understanding a totally different type of poetry all together. The way that Ed Roberson, who is the writer of City Eclogue, writes his poetry is something that you have to get used to when reading. The way that he writes is very unique in that he puts large spaces and gaps between words that sometimes make it hard to understand where the pauses are. Also he seems to hide the real meaning behind what he writes. This leaves room for different interpretations, depending on the person reading it.
What you may think the writer means from initially reading it may not be what he or she really wants to convey. Reading the poems two or three times and also really thinking about what the meaning behind the words are before guessing at what the poet is trying to convey. This proved very hard for me at trying to paint a picture of what the poet wants me to see. City Eclogue opened a new view of poetry for me that I didn’t understand and had never really worked with before. A great example of this is on page 76. The poem is called Engine. It is fairly short so it doesn’t drag out. It wastes no time getting to the point and has strong meaning behind the words that are written. For example, “You can experience the need to leave as noise in an otherwise harmonious system the blues the leaving and not sets up as a physical chatter tear you apart”. This line/section not only started the poem, but it also had a strong message behind it. I think this is because it taps into the mind of a person and kind of shows how broken or in pieces it is. While I think that the spaces in lines and sections are to try and make you pause and slow down what you are reading, I also think it adds to the drama behind what he is writing.
One of the poems in City Eclogue that I found really interesting was The Open. The way that it is written can be very confusing at first, but once you read a few of the poems that he writes, you start to understand why he writes the poems the way that he does. With these things being said, I found that Roberson used very strong words that helped get the meaning of his writing across. For example, in the poem, The Open, he used words like strangled, lynched, impossible, segregation and unremittingly to help the reader understand the picture that he is trying to paint with his poem. Some quotes that I really liked were, “as if it were the strangled neck of the hourglass that was going up”, and also “God’s strange rope spinning things open out of sky, up in smoke our tornado our lynched black pillar of light.” I thought that this was referring to Civil Rights or The Civil Rights Movement, along with a lot of the rest of the book. It is also extremely graphic when you think about it. I believe he wants you to picture the black pillar being lynched. This could refer to the death of either Malcolm X or Martin Luther King Jr. These topics really hit a soft spot with most people and because so, it helps the reader understand what the writer is trying to say.
After reading the entire book two times and some poems three times, you finally start to understand why the poet writes the way that he does. I believe that Roberson writes a little cryptic because he wants you to think about what the meaning is behind his words. I also have realized that the large spaces that he puts in the middle of sections, sentences and thoughts are to try and make us pause for a short time to take in what he is saying. I also think it was to try and add a dramatic effect to what is about to be said in the next line or next section. At first I didn’t find this technique effective, but after analyzing his writing it actually makes a lot of sense as to why he wrote the poems the way that he did. I have learned a lot from reading Ed Roberson’s, City Eclogue. I will take what I have learned from this reading and use it when reading and trying to understand future poetry.
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