Process Writing

My writing process over the past 10 weeks has mostly been based on the pick an idea and run with it method. I brain stormed for each piece and then based a story and a structure around the first idea I liked. The first assignment, the memoir, required the most brain storming. Originally I wanted to base my memoir around my mom and family but it was difficult to come up with a solid foundation for this idea. I don’t remember home in concrete details, rather, the past comes to me in feelings and the usual things that happened because much of growing up is one big cloudy memory, often colored with a rosy hue. So instead, I decided to write about a dating experience because those generally involve food and can be quite memorable.

I received an unexpected amount of positive feedback from my first and second drafts but this was surprising to me because though I knew my piece was funny, it didn’t have a much deeper meaning for me. The next assignment was the perfect meal and I choose to carry over my original idea from the first paper. I decided to talk about family. I began with my mom in mind but several characters including my dad and my brother worked their way into the story and I didn’t realize until my workshop day that I had a lot of revisions to work on.

Throughout the quarter I have been frustrated by the discrepancy between how I feel about my writing and how it is actually perceived. When I thought I wrote something sub-par I came to find out that it wasn’t that bad and vice versa when I was sure I had written a winning piece. I was almost positive that my restaurant critique did not critique the food well enough but alas, that was the part that worked. I’m not sure how to work on a problem like this and maybe these instances are outliers but if anyone has insight I welcome it.

The hardest part about this class has been writing for a blog. As much time as I spend on the internet I didn’t post or comment nearly as much as I could or should have. It’s definitely a habit that didn’t quite form. But I also liked the blogs because I really enjoyed experiencing the writing of so many great writers. Although I tend to be defensive of my writing when criticized, I found that I could be much more receptive of workshop advice in our class because I respected everyone’s writing abilities so much.

A breakthrough for me was trying to focus on the most basic elements before attempting more complicated techniques. I did my best to hone in on theme and structure including transitions and subtly presenting an arc for the story. My biggest weakness in writing is saying too much with too little space and too little detail. Workshops were incredibly useful for my writing process. They don’t always work but they really worked in our class. I think what contributed to that was reading the pieces the night before and posting preliminary comments.

I enjoyed food and travel writing immensely, what a great seminar right?!