Word Vomit and Sh*tty First Drafts

A few words on Word Vomit.

Vomiting is an act that, when it happens in "real life," can be utterly embarrassing, a clear sign that you're not entirely in control of your body. This is probably why I often use the image of vomiting when I think about writing a first draft. 

Writing is not about being in control, at least not at first. To get it started, you really do have to just let it out; just throw up all of your partially digested ideas and thoughts onto the page -- you'll have time to clean up the mess later.

Yes: It's uncomfortable, it's unpleasant, but if you don't let it out, you'll only feel full of anxiety longer. Once it's out, it's out. 

Your day can only get better.

Don't believe me? Reach Ann Lamott's "Shitty First Drafts"from her book Bird by Bird (1994).

Your task: Write a blog entry every day. It might feel half-baked or undercooked, but you will have written something. 

Own your words. Go write something.

The Death Penalty...

Blog a response, using the following questions for inspiration:

What was the experience of writing a pro-death penalty article like for you? What were its challenges? What about it was enjoyable? How did the process make you feel?

Blogging Prompt #1: The Writing Autobiography

Using the "Writing Autobiography and Self-Assessment" (which you can find in DropBox in "Readings and Worksheets") as a guide, blog about your experience as a writer. All you need to do is sit down, take your time, and just let out your thoughts about where you are and where you'd like to be by the end of the summer.

Start off by introducing yourself in whatever ways you like. Who are you? What kind of writer are you? Do you love, like, or hate writing? Why? You don't have to answer all of the questions from the Self-Assessment in your post, but use them as inspiration. Use this as an opportunity to start cultivating your own voice. Grammar is not important for this post -- just do you. I'll post my own blog entry by Saturday afternoon. 

Your posts should be between one and two paragraphs, about 5-10 sentences, and should be written on your individual blog.

Write, Writer, Write!

"Sigh" is right.

Welcome to Write, Writer, Write, the writing blog I've created to help encourage us to write, write, write!

Before I get to telling you about the purpose of this blog, I want to start off by keeping it real. Let's face it: most of us can probably empathize with Jorge Cham's comic depiction of what it's like coming back to school after a long break, regardless of how you spend it.  After that terrible race-to-the-finish of papers and exams at the end of a trimester, semester, or school year, we all needed a break to de-stress, yet some of us try to find some time to also get stuff done just to make the return a little less painful. Back in my day (not that long ago!), before laptops were common in class, I found myself barely able to hold a pencil right, let alone write anything coherent my first few day in school after vacation.  

Therein lies the purpose of this blog. 

Writing can be tough. In fact, writing can be frustrating, exhilarating, stressful, liberating, and many times, lots of fun. But as we've probably experienced before, the hardest part can often be getting started, and that's why we're going to be blogging as a way of starting up the writing process, of making it a more natural part of our lives. 

At times I'll ask you to write about the challenges we face as writers or about the topics we're interested in exploring, all in order to get us thinking about where we want to be in our writing careers (a.k.a. our lives). At other times I'll suggest more directly paper-related prompts, such responses to readings, research logs, and annotated bibliographies, so that we practice fine-tuning our voices to fit the goals of each assignment.

So, as you can tell, we'll be doing a lot of writing together. It is my hope that by working at it together, we'll uncover the great fun of the process along the way.


Source of Comic: Cham, Jorge. "Net Effect of a Vacation on Work Productivity." Piled Higher & Deeper, 10 Jan 2011. Web. 15 Jan 2011.