Insert Content Writing Process
It’s 3:20pm. The day is almost over. I have one more class left before I can go home and take a nap. My last class is an English class with Mr. Mangini. That day Mr. Mangini had brought some surprise guests with him, like this is some kind of show. It turns out, these people are writers and are here to answer our questions about the writing process. Mangini introduces them as Don Murray, Ray Bradbury, and Joan Didion. I (a quiet person who normally doesn’t participate in these kinds of things) asked the first question “Well, what’s this process I keep hearing about?” Don Murray excitedly responds “It is the process of discovery through language...the process of exploration of what we should know and what we feel about what we know through Language.” Even though I’m the one who asked, I wasn't paying attention. My mind begin to wonder about Ray Bradbury. I heard that name somewhere, but where? Anyway after beginning to pay attention I heard Murray continue on to say “The writing process itself can be divided into three stages: prewriting, writing, and rewriting. 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.” After writing this down I ask another question: “Most of the time when I’m writing I worry if I’m using the same word too many times. For example, instead of using the word “then” again, I use the phrase “after that.” Is this a good idea?” Responding to my question Murray says “This is not a question of correct or incorrect, of etiquette or custom. This is a matter of far higher importance. The writer, as he writes, is making ethical decisions. He doesn’t test his words by a rule book, but by life. He uses language to reveal the truth to himself so that he can tell it to others.” After a short period of time a fellow classmate asks do these writers even come up what to write. Joan Didion spoke and said “I need an hour alone before dinner, with a drink, to go over what I’ve done that day.” Bradburry looking surprised said ”Some new thing is always exploding in me, and it schedules me, I don’t schedule it. It says: Get to the typewriter right now and finish this.” This debate continued as Didion would go on to say “If I don’t have the hour, and start the next day with just some bad pages and nowhere to go, I’m in low spirits. Bradbury countered by saying “I worked on my typewriter in the living room, with the radio and my mother and dad and brother all talking at the same time.” I ignored what he said as I could never relate to it, and continued on wondering where I knew him from. Meanwhile another student interested in what Didion said asked her what else she did. Didion replied “Another thing I need to do, when I’m near the end of the book, is sleep in the same room with it... Somehow the book doesn’t leave you when you’re asleep right next to it.” My mind exploded. Not from what she said, but Bradburry. I finally figured it out. “FAHRENHEIT!!! FAHRENHEIT 451!!! THAT’S WHERE I KNOW YOU FROM!!” I screamed at Bradburry. I read this book in high school. Smiling with joy Bradburry added “When I wanted to write Fahrenheit 451, I went up to UCLA and found a basement typing room where, if you inserted ten cents into the typewriter, you could buy thirty minutes of typing time.” Murray, hearing two different opinions from good writers said “There are no rules, no absolutes, just alternatives. What works one time may not another. All writing is experimental.” Unfortunately time ran out, and we didn’t finish talking, but Mangini assured us by informing us that the three writers would visit again the following week to continue this interesting conversation.
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Ani TapiaI will use this blog to practice writing. Archives
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