Response to Bird by Bird 4

I had been wondering through each assigned reading where the section Writer's Block was in Bird by Bird.  Lamott's advice for curing your inability to write is, of course, writing.  I thought it was funny but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.  You can not get better at that which you stop practicing.

I also found the section Someone To Read Your Drafts to be helpful.  For those who are serious about writing, I think it is sound advice to find someone who's opinion you find valid and who also is able to read your work and give constructive feedback.  I thought it was important to note that even while something you write may be horrible, no one should ever give you purely negative feedback and that it should remain encouraging.  

The section Finding Your Voice was actually kind of confusing to me.  When Lamotte advises to write as though your "parents are dead" I took it to mean without fear of what others may think or without trying to please someone else.  To write just as yourself is a difficult thing to do, for me not so much becaus eof others opinions, but because of my own.  Fortunately, dealing with your own voice had already been covered in other parts of this book and I suppose in writing this out, I gained some clarification.

Response to Goldberg

I liked Goldberg's section I Don't Want to Die.  I thought the story the titled derived from with the zen master was really interesting and I like her advice to write what you really feel rather than not.  I know from flipping through my old journals that I used to write as though someone else would be reading them.  I didn't even put my real thoughts or feelings out for fear that someone, someday would find my journals, care enough to read them and judge me.  It's a silly thought because frankly, who would really care to flip through a 2 foot pile of stacked teen angst?  Probably no one.  But when I went through them and remembered the events I wrote of, I remembered how I was really feeling and how much what I wrote didn't capture that.  I have since learned to unabashedly write angry rants in chicken scratch to loving words sweet enough to give you diabetes- whatever I really feel.
I also found Reading and Rewriting helpful.  Although the vast majority of writing I do is journaling/venting, I find that if I try to edit it in someway I often fare much better if it has had some time to settle.  Same with the writing I have done for this class.  I also agree with her that sometimes you may not even be aware of something you have written.  Every once in a great while, I'll decide to look through some of the writing saved to my computer and on a handful of occasions I have found something I have vague if any recollection of writing that isn't half bad.
I prefer Bird by Bird to any of the Goldberg selections we've read, but I've found them both to have helpful advice on methods to improving and finding a personal writing style.

Response to Bird by Bird 3

I loved the first section in this week's Bird by Bird reading.  Looking Around is not only good direction for writing but also living life in general.  Being able to become enamored, or at least observe, things we all too often ignore as inane is crucial to, I think, living life!  Without, for example, acknowledging the beauty of the small things around us or at the very least feeling something about anything, what is the point?  I don't think you can write about a world you aren't a part of, and to be a part of the world, you must pay attention to it.
I also really liked the section Broccoli.  I often find myself giving my girlfriend's unsolicited relationship advice along the lines of "follow your intuition".  We all stifle and ignore ourselves far too often because of society or how we were raised or any other reason from a pile of millions, typically (in my case) resulting in some silly situation that wouldn't have risen had I listened to my gut reaction.  This can definitely be applied to writing and I like Lamott's encouragement to listen to your intuition.
Finally, I liked the section Index Cards.  It reminded me of a psychology project from high school where we had to keep a journal next to our beds and record what dreams or fragments remained as soon as we woke up.  Keeping index cards or anything to jot ideas down on your person or around your house is a good way to ensure that ideas aren't lost.  There have been so many instances in which I have though of something great and been too lazy to make note of it, thus losing it forever when it was inevitably forgotten minutes later.  To then catalogue those cards for days when your mind is blank is a good tip on preventing writer's block and encouraging the process every day.

Response to Wreckage of Reason 2

I enjoy reading Wreckage of Reason because it is diverse and each story is short enough that if I don't like it much, its over soon.  :)  Out of this week's selections, I most liked You A Love WAR Story, part I.  I like the style of writing, it reminds me of a journal entry where someone is just writing whatever pops into their head.  The rest of the sections are different; letters between numerous people, notes, etc.  The whole story to me is just that of an unhappy relationship.  I found myself wondering why she didn't leave him if she no longer loved him.  Although the story has scattered parts, they do seem chronological.  Did she stay out guilt?  He is depressed and maybe she couldn't go.  Maybe they are married and divorce is too complicated.  I like this story but it actually made me really sad to read and I found my eyes watering, everyone just seems so complacent... at best.
I found Intuition to be an interesting, although disturbing, story.  Reading it, I found that I really wanted to know what was going to happen, but when I came across her recall of "the incident", I know I made a strange face at my book.  It bothers me how un-remorseful the speaker sounds as she recalls what she did.  It also offers no answers, her only explanation was that she was 17 and dealing with a death in the family.      I did like the style of writing though- again it seemed very personal and realistic.

Response to Bird by Bird 2 (for 3/15)

I really enjoy reading Lamott's Bird by Bird.  I think her approach to writing about writing is straightforward and amusing.  From this week's reading, I found her section on dialogue to be the mos helpful.  I rarely write stories and when I do, I always struggle with maintaining the character's character through dialogue.  She says to remember that you should be able to identify a character through their dialogue, and I found that helpful.  I makes me think that a lot of good writers could be good actors- you need to become a character when you write, a little bit, in order to know what their feelings, responses, speech, and actions should be.
Although there was a somewhat heated debate about plot vs. character in class last Thursday, I would have to say I agree more so with Lamott's viewpoint.  I think characters generate plot, or that the two are cyclical.  As in real life, we are shaped by experiences and other things arise as result of our doings.  You can't really separate plot from character just as you can not separate a personality from life experience.  These two things will always go hand in hand.

Responses to Wreckage of Reason

Of the several works in Wreckage of Reason we read this week, A Whirlwind Romance was my favorite.  Lillis divides her story into two sections, the first lists things someone had said to her prior to their meeting and the second lists things he said to her after they met while spending time together.  In section I he is supportive, interested, and full of flattery.  In section II, however, he shifts to critical, dismissive, and contradictory.  My favorite line is towards the end; "That's the funny thing about the English language- one word can have any number of meanings."  I think the entire story shows how we as people often are not ourselves with others at first.  We want people to like us, we want acceptance, this story also illustrates, I think, how our desire for sex affects how we interact with others.
The other story I was drawn to was N.  It was interesting to me that it was written using words from a page of the newspaper, much like our assignments of reconstructing others' poems into our own works by using their words.  It was written that one word was added and I find myself wondering which word it is. The last portion of the work, titled Gospel Incompletely, the boy of the story is dead.  I was really drawn to this section and I felt like the author was saying if the parents were able to look at their dead child, they would see all these things he represented or imagined to be.  I felt like the things listed were an abstract representation of the child's life.
So far, I am enjoying the stories we have been reading but I don't always understand the author's intent.  Much of this writing is, to me, largely symbolic and non-direct and I feel like I need to reread it several times to begin to grasp the concepts.

Start of story

The hazy sky envelopes the city with no discernable edge, thick with misty droplets.  The sun hides behind this monochromatic mix of city and sky; its only proof a cast of absent light over stone streets littered with cardboard boxes of fruits and fish, frogs and turtles.  The air carries the smell of stale sea water and rot across peddler's wide chapped cheeks as they hover over blankets and tarps, tin and turquoise lining each.

I close my eyes and yellow light falls in a circle over an old cream floor.  A desk sits in the middle, wooden and heavy.  The only other object is a large metal filing cabinet placed directly behind the desk and everything outside of yellow light fades to black.  I know I am here by the clacking of my shoes against the floor.  I open a drawer of the filing cabinet and retrieve a single manila file.  It is wet as I open it and it drips down my arms, pooling at my feet until I can see my reflection in its puddle.  I look up to haze enveloping a city with no discernable edge, the sun hiding behind a monochromatic mix of building and sky, it’s only proof a cast of dull light shed over stone streets.  Cardboard boxes of fruits and fish, frogs and turtles litter the roads and the air carries the smell of stale seawater and rot into my scarf.  Peddler’s wide cheeks grow chapped as the hover over blankets and tarps, tin and turquoise lining each.