Please remember to date and title each entry in your notebook. Introduce yourself as a writer. Consider some of the following questions: How often do you normally write?What kind of writing do you do?What do you like/dislike about writing?What topics do you seem to write most about?What significant experiences have you had with writing?Who in your family writes?What do you think your writing strengths are? Weaknesses?
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
My name is William and I write many things during the courses of my days. I seem to write creatively and I like to expand on my creative avenues. When I write, sometimes it seems that I make simple ideas very complicated. Perhaps this is once again displaying that I like to make things different. It could also say that I need to get more organized?
I normally write an ok amount every day in school. For instance, today I have to write a concert reflection summary for an orchestra concert, take notes in Economics, take notes in Calculus, and write this. I suppose with the composition class underway, I will write a lot more. Even then, with all the writing I would normally do, there is a difference between literary writing and note taking. The writing that I do is because of necessity. Everything that I do has a good reason for doing so. In earlier and less busy times, like last year, I remember that I would write for fun sometimes, almost to enjoy it. I know I wrote a couple things to submit to the Literary magazine last year, and I still enjoy seeing my writing that got published in the magazine.
I seem to like free flowing and free styled writing, aka creative writing. I don't enjoy writing in set formats and in formal settings as much. Still, I think the think that makes me like writing is that it is a self fulfilling quest in itself; writing can be blunt or masterfully crafted, and I think that writing allows the revision, the perfection that brings a piece of work one step closer to sounding "great." Writing is a good medium of communication, because it allows development of ideas and clear thought exchange. I have been writing all my life. I have encountered many things with and through writing. I know that in fifth grade, I opened my first "giant" novel, and I wondered, "what fills the space between the covers?" Since then, I have "encountered" writing through learning about "the process" a thousand times, and writing many reports and five-paragraph essays. I am glad I don't have to deal with that nonsense anymore.
I seem to write about similar ideas. The topics are overthought and overused, but remain as effective as always. They are the topics of our lives; they are in our music, our stories, our movies, and they are in mine. I write about life, experiencing confrontations, and overcoming. I talk about order and chaos, justice and injustice, war and peace. I think these have to do with my life experences. For example, I like art history, so I often relate writing to literary and artistic movements. Everything is connected, it seems in a big circle.
In my family, only me and my brothers write, and most often only for school. My parents seem to only read the newspaper and watch the evening news; they don't write for fun, and are all about taking in information, not disclosing out their thoughts to the outside world. The only time they probably write is probably in their jobs, and again, it is out of necessity.
I think my strengths are in my creative ideas and in how I manage to think of good reasons to support my ideas. The weaknesses in my writing have to do with organization. I can have 10 good ideas, but it will be pointless because I cannot organize the points to cohere with the other points. I compare this to leading an army. My large and creative army often get mixed up when trying to make their points, and break their lines in the process, causing confusion and loss of time/resources. I then have to retreat to restart another day or another time. I expect to change this and be able to lead my army by the end of this class!
