Our next readings will give you some insight into the act of writing as a PROCESS. I hope you enjoy them. Go to our READINGS page and you will find a free pdf of Anne Lamott’s book Bird by Bird. The chapters on which we will be focusing  are “Perfectionism” and “Shitty First Drafts.” Read both of them for next class and write short reflections on them in your notebook. What did you think of what she had to say? Do you agree? What has been your own experience in these areas? No length limit or minimum. Reading the entire book is of course better than just a couple of chapters, should you so desire, but be prepared to discuss the above in class at some length. Due Feb 10.

Looking ahead: You should already be taking some extensive notes and thinking at length about Your Relationship to Writing. I want you to describe for me (in detail!) where you generally write, what you write with, how you write, when you write…in the past….in the present. Your Habits. Your areas of difficulty. Your struggles. The stuff you like. The stuff you hate. This is like a dossier on you and your relationship with the writing process. The notes you take now will be developed into a larger paper which you will hand in to me on Feb 19. If you are really  having trouble getting started, I will suggest a few “prompts” for you — do don’t have to use them, but here are a few:

“My Journey as a writer has been….”

“My journey as a writer started back when I ….”

“I notice that I…”

“I like to use…”

Again, write what you want to say. The truth is all.

btw, another suggestion: Another work that might inspire you is Stephen King’s memoir on writing. He gives a lot of good insight. It’s also on our readings page if you want to take a look!