Donald Murray is a writer, who writes in many different forms. He writes poems, academic articles, newsletters, textbooks, etc. In this writing piece by Donald Murray he speaks about his idea that all writing is autobiographical.
Donald Murray proves his point that all writing is autobiographical because when we write we are telling the story through our own emotions and our own thoughts. In our writing pieces we may speak upon our own life experiences and connect them into our story. We as writers often like to make connections with other writers and readers on a personal level. Our writing pieces are autobiographical because we are writing in our own language, which allows us to illustrate the way we see reality and convey it to other readers, allowing the reader to fully immerse themselves into the writing and get a real feeling as to what you are saying. No one can re-create your thoughts or emotions which makes the writing autobiographical.
Donald Murray definitely changed the way I read and write now moving forward. He showed us great examples of autobiographical texts, and by giving us those examples I was able to see all the elements that go into writing and how it is autobiographical. One of those elements that he spoke upon were giving factual selective details. When I was reading the column “Over sixty” I was able to read the details that he was giving in the writing and paint a picture in my head of what I was reading. I was visually seeing what he was writing about.
However what happens when we read fiction novels, are those considered autobiography’s? When authors write fiction stories, they often like to convey these fantasies that sometimes aren’t realistic, or portray the reality we live in.
In high school I was somewhat incorporating autobiographical aspects into my writing. I would actually use a lot of details to illustrate my point of view of the world. I would often keep my writing authentic and real. I like to give readers an inside look of who I am, so I share great memories and life experiences about myself. Moving forward I would like to fully incorporate autobiographical aspects into my writing because I feel that it will be a great way for me to write out my scripts, story boards, and or any pre production work for when I direct and film music videos. This autobiographical technique will better help me tell stories and give the visuals to the audience to enjoy.
Tigerjeet, Great response! First, I love how thoughtfully, you responded to the question he poses, is all writing autobiographical. You provided great evidence to support your thinking and raised a really interesting counterpoint-what happens when fiction writers tell us they are really, truly writing fiction? I also love that you are going to try to incorporate some of his ideas into your own writing or think about how you write in a new way after reading this! I think that truly is the goal of this class and our readings! I would love for you to discuss in some ways, how you think you can use his work to inform or to help you as a writer with the rest of the class during our next discussion. Thanks!
Donald Murray brings up and interesting point that I think I will never forget. This idea that “All writing is autobiography”. Donald states the way we write deprives from who we are, our view and perspective of life. We don’t tend to realize when we write a story we are telling the story from our perspective, from the experiences we been in also the language we are comfortable with, the language were taught since childhood. When we are reading other writers pieces we are reading someone else’s thoughts and style of presenting them. Everybody has a unique story and a unique culture. It all affects our style of writing . The author chooses many different writings and proves why they are all an autobiography. Each story had it’s own language and descriptions to it, which tied back to the individual who wrote the story. For example in the first poem he explains it’s an autobiography because it relates to his own view on the world in the story it was his childhood. The poem was written from childhood memories. His voice throughout the poem deems from his unique way of communicating what he observes in the world, and the best language to describe it. I feel like all writing is autobiography even the fiction and science fiction pieces, because who is one to tell another person that what they see or think of the world is “fake”. Fiction writers still use their own language to create their writings and they can still be communicating what they see in the world. Nothing is fake writing comes from within, and Donald Murray helped me see literature for what it really is.