It was a rainy fall day in New York. I was walking down the street and I stumbled across a quint coffee shop. I stepped inside and got in line waiting to order. I ordered a tall mocha with pumpkin spice. I received my coffee and turned to find a table. As I scoped out the room I noticed three known writers; Don Murray, Maria Popova, and Anne Lamott. Me being a college student currently studying creative writing; this is the perfect moment to have a conversation about the most important topic in writing: The Writing Process. I walked over to their table, “Hi my name is Alexa and I am an inspiring writer. Do you mind if I ask; What is the writing process?” Murray glanced at me, put his coffee down and said, “The writing process itself can be divided into three stages: pre- writing, writing, and rewriting.” I nodded and looked in Anne’s direction. “Do my drafts have to be perfect before I move onto the next step?” I asked in hopes she would answer. Anne looked at me with a slight smile on her face and said,” Now, practically even better news than that of short assignments is the idea of shitty first drafts. All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts”. I looked over at Maria “When is it a good time to work on my writing?” Maria looked up from her iPhone X and said, “I can work anywhere. I wrote in bedrooms and living rooms when I was growing up with my parents and my brother in a small house in Los Angeles. I worked on my typewriter in the living room, with the radio and my mother and dad and brother all talking at the same time. Later on, when I wanted to write Fahrenheit 451, I went up to UCLA and found a basement typing room where, if you inserted ten cents into the typewriter, you could buy thirty minutes of typing time.” I laughed at her response because I have always wanted a typewriter. “My writing process needs to be changed from the responses I have received from you all. I normally write on draft and try to make it perfect.” I asked, “Should I get people to read my drafts?” “Whenever I’m giving a lecture at a writing conference and happen to mention the benefits of finding someone to read your drafts, at least one older established writer comes up to me and says he or she would never in a million years show his or her work to another person before it was done. It is not a good idea, and I must stop telling my students that it will help them.” Anne added “ Then I go on telling people to consider finding someone who would not mind reading their drafts and marking them up with useful suggestions”. “And what is prewriting and writing to you? Mr. Murray” “Prewriting is everything that takes place before the first draft. Prewriting usually takes about 85 percent of the writer’s time. It includes the awareness of his world from which his subject is born. In prewriting, the writer focuses on that subject, spots an audience, chooses a form which may carry his subject to his audience. Pre- writing may include research and daydreaming, note-making and outlining, title-writing and lead-writing.” He continued to answer my question, “Writing is the act of producing a first draft. It is the fastest part of the process, and the most frightening, for it is a commitment. When you complete a draft you know how much, and how little, you know. And the writing of this first draft—rough, searching, unfinished—may take as little as one percent of the writer’s time. “ I continued to ask questions, “Maria what if you aren’t a morning person, but you want to write well?” Maria took a sip of her coffee and answered “I’m always in a hurry to get going, though in general I dislike starting the day. I first have tea and then, at about ten o’clock, I get under way and work until one.” She continued to talk “If the work is going well, I spend a quarter or half an hour reading what I wrote the day before, and I make a few corrections. Then I continue from there. In order to pick up the thread I have to read what I’ve done.” It was now 6pm and we talked for about 2 hours. “Wow. This was very useful information. I will definitely take all this advice and put it into my writing.
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Alexa AaminahI will use this blog to present my work for English Composition. Archives
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