My first experience with writing
occurred on some god awful day in elementary school when I was given my first
writing assignment, most likely a book report of some sort. Reading summaries or “how I spent my summer
vacation”-type essays would make up the rest of my writing experiences until I
entered junior high and discovered the “research paper.” The research paper was almost like a book
report, except it usually involved reading several books about one particular
topic and then combining that information into one cohesive paper about
whatever your topic was. Then came the
“critical analysis” paper, where my task was to analyze what some one else had
written on a certain topic and then argue for or against the point they were
trying to make. As you can see, the
majority of my experiences with writing have been mandatory assignments that
I’ve never really care for.
Although
my attitude toward writing hasn’t improved all that much since my first book
report, I have found ways that have improved my writing experience. Some of those ways have to do with
technology. In junior high and even a
little bit of high school, I would actually have to check out books from a
library to do research. Now it’s as simple
as going to Google Scholar to find legitimate sources. I also used to dread putting together a works
cited page but now I can just type it into a an online MLA formatted works
cited generator that does it for me. One
big help that didn’t involve technology was just learning and utilizing the
basic format of a research paper; knowing where to put the thesis statement in
an intro/conclusion, summarizing your topic, and organizing support
paragraphs. Even though I’ve never
enjoyed writing these types of papers, these little tools have helped me get
decent grades on the papers I write.
Even
though I detest the mundane and tediousness of most research based writing, I
have enjoyed some forms of creative writing.
Throughout high school and most of college I didn’t have much experience
with creative writing except for the occasional lesson in poetry which I never
really cared for. When I attended
Montgomery County Community College, I took a scriptwriting course that I
actually ended up liking. At first, it
was hard getting used to the format but once I began to figure that out I
actually began to look forward to the different assignments. It was nice being able to use my own ideas
and imagination instead of just summarizing and analyzing a bunch of shit that
other people had written. Then, in
another class I got to write a concert review and once again I found myself
enjoying the art of writing. Being able
to just write down my own thoughts and feelings on a topic that I care about
made me want to become a better writer.
This
past semester I had the opportunity to write in several different formats
during the course of the Writing Workshop course I enrolled in. These formats included, writing for broadcast
news, business letters, interview/profile writing, critiquing, scriptwriting,
and research papers. For the most part,
the course reinforced my pre-existing opinions of writing but in some areas my
opinions changed. For instance, even
though I am still not a fan of the research paper, during class discussion I
realized there were ways to add some creativity to a what I perceived as a
bland form of writing. This helped me in
approaching my research paper with a little more enthusiasm that I normally
would. I also found the broadcast
writing to be fun in a challenging sort of way.
It seemed to be kind of like a puzzle where you had to find the most
important information in a pile of useless information and then find a way to
coherently and briefly put it together.
I
still believe that the only writing I could ever see myself doing for leisure
or for fun would be the kind that revolves around storytelling. I enjoyed the scriptwriting assignment because
a) it didn’t involve research and citing sources and b) because it allowed me
to make a situation up out of thin air that could possibly provide someone else
with entertainment. I believe my
preference of writing styles reflects the literature that I enjoy reading,
which is mainly journalism (Hunter S. Thompson-esque), music/movie reviews, and
science-fiction novels. So basically, I
just have a hard time writing stuff that I wouldn’t otherwise enjoy reading.
Even though I have
found certain types of writing enjoyable, I don’t usually do any writing
outside of school assignments but this class, along with overall boredom, has helped
me consider keeping a journal. Last
summer, I did begin to outline a book that I would like to try and turn into a
script but I eventually lost focus and haven’t made much progress since. Since I write music I will occasionally work
on lyrics but I’ve always been more focused on the musical aspect of
songwriting. So for the most part,
writing has always been something I only associate with school but lately I
have been trying to incorporate it into my everyday life.
One of the hardest
aspects of writing for me has always been just getting started. Writing that first sentence, or figuring out
a thesis statement, or figuring out an outline, for some reason has always been
my least favorite parts. Whenever I’m
into a paper and know what I’m talking about, I don’t have much trouble. It’s just the beginning of each step that
makes me stumble. My favorite part is
coming up with a creative way to say something.
Knowing that I found a way to express a though as cleverly as possible
always makes me happy when I’m writing.
Since I’m not
exactly sure what it is I’ll end up doing professionally, it’s hard for me to
say how writing will fit into my life but I guess I’ll just pretend I got my
ideal job of producing music. In this
case, I’ll have to be in communication with musicians so I’ll have to know how
to descriptively describe sounds and professionally give opinions on different
music. I’d also like to become better at
writing informally. I’ve always felt I’m
pretty good at expressing myself verbally but have a hard time transferring even
my most basic thoughts and opinions onto paper.
Basically I’d like to reach a point where I’m just as comfortable
expressing myself with a pencil or keyboard as I am with my vocal-chords.
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