My writing

****I had trouble posting this to the blog last night****It was posted to DDB prior to deadline : )

This is a tough one for me, because other than this class I haven’t done any writing. I love reading, the written word, grammar, all of it—everything about it. To hone in on a particular writing experience and isolate a single experience when I enjoyed the process and the final product will require me to use this class as my foundation.

There were two essays that I enjoyed writing more than the other two. The first essay, my personal essay, was a piece I really enjoyed. I haven’t hammered it out to a final product yet, but thus far in the process I would say it’s my favorite. I think it’s because in writing about me, it is obviously a topic I know well. Having said that, the purse snatching was a traumatic experience in my life that I hadn’t ever put down on paper. I had saved the newspaper articles and editorials, and I thought it was cool to combine how other’s perceived the incident and wrote about it, with my own thoughts and using my style to tell the story. That piece, along with this blog, has given me a push to continue journaling. I have lots of stories, and after finally putting pen to paper and getting it written, I think a few of them would work nicely as essays. What thrills, excites or satisfies me was to see how it flowed, how I told the story from my perspective. For the first time, although it was an assignment, it was my words, without having to research and use others as references. I could use my own thoughts and insights.

The second essay that I really enjoyed was writing about my friend Joanne, a race-walking Olympian. Even though she is my friend, I removed myself enough to write what I thought turned into a solid piece without too much bias. I felt satisfied getting fourteen years of her experiences into a short essay. I am not yet completely satisfied with the piece, I have some tweaking to do, but I feel like when it’s finished it is good enough to share with others, and Joanne herself. I enjoyed writing about someone I know, she has such a great story to tell. I liked that I could put her story into words.

Coming into this class, I was intimated and thought about dropping the course. I felt like I was way out of my league with students who had more experience and therefore “belonged” in the class. I don’t feel like that now. I feel like I can write well enough to put it out there, and I’m tough enough to take any criticism, because it will make my work stronger. My writing prior to this class has only been for assignments, so only the professor has read my work. It is nice to have something I am comfortable with and confident enough to share. For me, that is a thrill and a huge personal accomplishment.

I found I can write and enjoy it! I really get what it means to enjoy what you’re writing about or others won’t enjoy reading it. I can truly say that the vulnerability I felt when I posted my first essay knowing other people would actually read it, has lessened. I still feel it, but I also started getting a sense for when I wrote something well and also when I slacked on a paragraph or two. It’s interesting to see that if you feel like you’re not on the mark, chances are you should re-work it, as others will pick up on that as well.