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.