In the Hills Like White Elephants and in My Name is Margaret (Maya Angelou) the authors use little things that might not mean much to the reader but mean a lot to them for example in My Name Is Margaret the author uses dishware to symbolize that she didn’t want to be treated like a slave anymore and breaking the dishes was like her breaking free and in the Hills Like White Elephants the white elephant isn’t an elephant at all in fact in symbolizes a baby that is yet to be born and the hills are the belly of a pregnant woman so in this blog post I hope to make a similar connection to something in my life that may not mean something to the reader but means something to me. Flyer, Penguins battle of Pennsylvania outdoors on a freezing cold, rainy night on February 23rd at Lincoln Financial Field this is a game I had been dying to go to since they first announced it a year prior. My dad had gotten us tickets for Christmas and I got myself a jersey they would be wearing in the game so we arrive at the stadium it hasn’t started raining yet but we knew it was going to at some point and that would only make the conditions colder. We get to our seats on the first level and settle in for the game even though it was the eagles stadium there was a lot of orange and rightfully so, the game starts and it starts to rain but not like a downpour rain it was more of an annoying mist rain which wasn’t much better as it was still freezing cold due to the cold weather to begin with. Flyers go up 1-0 then the Penguins answer back at this point the rain had subsided and as the first period ended we had a concert to keep us entertained during the intermission it was a Keith Urban concert which me and my dad liked since we liked country music. He ends his performance and its time for the second period which is when things went very bad the Penguins scored two unanswered goals and it was getting colder by the minute on top of that but I was determined to try to stay. Second period ends and things were looking bleak the flyers were down two and it was just getting increasingly colder and then the rain comes back again to make things worse I say to my dad “ Hey can I have the hand warmers my hands and feet are going a little numb from the cold.” He asks “ do you wanna see what they do in the third and if they don’t do anything leave early.” I said “ yeah that sounds good cause we are down 3-1 and the rain isn’t gonna stop and its just gonna get colder.” The third period starts the rain continues but the hand warmers were working I was a little less cold it gets to around 6 minutes left and by this point most of the fans had left because it was still very cold and miserable and we were still down. My dad says “ Do you wanna leave there is 6 minutes left” Now I’m stuck with a problem stay and still be cold and watch them most likely lose or go and miss a comeback if there is one I said “ Games not over yet still 6 Minutes left I wanna see the end of it now” 4 minutes left now the Flyers score to make it 3-2 and now there is hope what was a cold miserable night had turned into something with a little meaning now as what remained of the crowd roared with excitement and cheered them on to will them to get another goal to tie it. Seconds are now left on the clock we were just hoping for a miracle at this point or go home on a miserable night miserable our selves, the puck gets thrown to the net with a prayer and it some how goes it we have a tie game and I could feel the ground rocking from the noise in the stadium now all the cold I had felt during the game had seemed to disappear. In overtime the fans are now trying to will the team to a win. Claude Giroux our captain skated through center ice into the Pittsburgh zone takes the shot and scored we had won the game the fans were at full roar now me and my dad were high fiving each other and complete strangers next to us as well. We get back to the car after the game rain soaked and still a little cold we both look at each other and say “that was awesome.” So now whenever I see the ticket or wear the jersey I wore to that game the joy of being there to witness it and not back out during the game come back to me and the joy I shared with my dad in what I consider one of the best experiences with him in my young life of 19 years also come back to me whenever I see those objects.
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In this weeks blog post I will be reading and giving you a somewhat of a summary into the writing process and I will also be getting advice from three authors Don Murray as well as Mary Karr and Finally Anne Lamott and they will assist me in my knowledge and yours of the writing process by using quotes from their pieces to help explain it and to set the scene I will be doing it as having a conversation with them via twitter as there is no possible real way for me to met all three authors at the same time.
Everyday when I just want to see what’s going on in the Twitterverse or see what my friends are up to I will go on twitter to hangout and just relax on there and one day after just talking scrolling through the time line seeing the normal sports related stuff, politics and all that I see something rather interesting something I had never seen on the timeline before or even knew it existed it was a page dedicated to the writing process like for example a funny joke or a quote would pop up from some unknown authors who just write for fun but then there were the very few actual famous authors who would add their takes on the writing process and how they viewed it in their writing careers. There were three individual authors that had said something about the writing process that made me want to take a closer look into their careers and those individuals were Don Murray, Mary Karr, And Ann Lamott. So as any normal person on twitter would do I sent each of them a message because I’m just a college student trying to figure out the writing process myself so I figured I wonder if they could maybe assist me and help me understand the writing process so I can use it in upcoming pieces and who better to ask then three people who needed to understand it for a living to thrive. I start by asking Don Murray what I should do to better understand the writing process and how to use it effectively in my future pieces, I scroll through twitter some more and then I get a message back from @realDonMurray and he goes in depth to describe what the writing process means to him he told me “The writing process itself can be divided into three stages: prewriting, writing, and rewriting” so I then asked how long does this process usually take for the average writer to complete and make their work better by using these steps and he replied with “The amount of time a writer spends in each stage depends on his personality, his work habits, his maturity as a craftsman, and the challenge of what he is trying to say.” Then as I am finishing reading his points another account joined the fray @MaryKarrWriting and she suggested that Don was somewhat right in his assessments of the writing process and she shared what she has learned to be true about it as well through her years of work “I’ve heard three truths from every mouth: (1) Writing is painful—it’s “fun” only for novices, the very young, and hacks; (2) other than a few instances of luck, good work only comes through revision; (3) the best revisers often have reading habits that stretch back before the current age, which lends them a sense of history and raises their standards for quality.” I then replied back with so through all your years of writing experience you have seen this first hand and have evolved your writing using these tips. She then replied back with more advice for my writing cause sometimes when I write I’m not entirely sure where it is going so she told me this “Let your mind roam down some alleys that may land in dead ends—that’s the nature of the process.” Then out of no where the third account joins the conversation @AnneLamott so I ask her what I asked the other two authors which is how she used and understood the writing process in her writing and what to do when you write or have trouble writing or how to know if you’re going anywhere with your writing and she replied with her techniques for writing and staying calm and focused when engaged in writing “So I just sit there for a minute, breathing slowly, quietly. I let my mind wander” So basically she just relaxes and lets her mind take over and make the decisions for her about her writing. I then asked if she had any advice for being more confident in writing drafts for the piece because sometimes when I write drafts I am not entirely confident when I write my drafts I just feel like I cant do any more to it but know I should and she gave me this advice on how to approach the draft process of writing “Now, practically even better news than that of short assignments is the idea of shitty first drafts. All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts.” Now Don Murray adds something else to Anne’s point about drafts and he says “Don’t look back. Yes, the draft needs fixing. But first it needs writing.” So then Anne adds one last point into this little mini conversation about drafting your writing and assures me that it is ok to make mistakes in the drafting process and says she has seen many other famous authors do the same thing. “I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts.” And also that the first draft shouldn’t be taken to seriously “The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later.” Just when I’m about to leave twitter for the day Mary Karr caps off the conversation by sharing something with me that basically means you should never be satisfied you should always strive to write more and write better. “Every writer I know who’s worth a damn spends way more time “losing” than “winning”—if success means typing a polished page that lands in print as is.” I concluded the conversation by thanking them for giving me this information into the writing process and how I can make myself better and more confident in what I write. So in conclusion what I have learned for this conversation with these authors is that 1) “ Just be you and run wild with your writing its ok to make mistakes” 2) “ That I can just relax and write and not have to worry about messing up cause that’s what drafts are for, for you to mess up during the writing process and learn from it.” And 3) “To never be satisfied with your writing you can always do more or do better.” |
Patrick SullivanI will use the blog to make meaning and explore the messy process writing Archives
May 2020
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