BIRD BY BIRD #2
GETTING STARTED
When getting started, just get things down on your paper, no matter what they may be. Once you get your thoughts down the rest will come naturally. The best way to start is think about your past, write about your childhood, your family, memories, interests, etc. When doing that think of how you felt, what you smelt, what you heard, or saw and add that when writing. If you were in pain, describe how you felt, paint a picture for your readers. Writing is hard at first, but it get easier. Yes you may tear up your entire paper and have to start from scratch, but it happens to the best of us. “If you really enjoy something then go for it.”
SHORT STORIES AND SHITTY FIRST DRAFTS
When writing short stories be careless and let your creativity flow. ““Writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs,” Anne says but the best thing to do is not be so serious. Describe the most important things and you will be golden. For shitty first drafts, whether you believe it or not, all good writers have shitty first drafts. The first draft is the longest, throw all of your thoughts down and somewhere in that shitty first draft will be one excellent idea you can build off of. In order to write something good, your first draft has to be bad. When writing your first draft, eliminate the voices in your head, get rid of all the people around you and focus on just the paper right in front of you. It is just you and the paper.
AFFECTS ON MY WRITING
When starting my papers, I am going to think about my past. I want to find the things in my past that had the biggest impact on me and expand on those ideas. When struggling to write I will also know that all good writers have been in that dead point too, but it will get better. I need to be lose when writing and carefree. Having a sense of what I feel when writing will help the tone of my writings shine through. When writing my first drafts I need to remember to trust the process. I need to be okay with my first draft being bad and understand that there very many unnecessary things in it that can be taken out. I need to believe in my writing otherwise it won’t turn out. I need to correct and edit multiple times but that will help me reach my best writing.
BIRD BY BIRD #3
PERFECTIONISM
Perfectionism can very well ruin your writing. When writing it needs to flow and have breathing room but perfectionism will ruin that. “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people,” Anne stated in chapter 3 of Bird By Bird. If you do not let go of the idea of having perfectionism, you will not get far in your writing. You will get mad and things will not go according to plan which will lead to holding you back in your writing. Now when thinking during my writing I will remember that trying to perfect my writings it will negatively effect me and my writing. It will hold me back and not allow my talents to shine through.
SCHOOL LUNCHES
When writing, think of school lunches. Think about how the sandwich is the main dish, and within writing the centerpiece is the “sandwich.” You have to keep using this technique even though you might only get one good theme but at least you got everything down. After writing and getting down your ideas, you pick the things you want or don’t want just like going through the lunch line. The affect this will have on my writing is to write down every possible idea and create multiple drafts so that I can just pick and chose from there. I have to edit and shape my writing.
POLAROIDS
Writing your first draft is always the hardest, it takes the longest to create just like waiting for a Polaroid picture to develop. You also don’t know all of the finishing touches or product when beginning a piece of writing just like in a Polaroid, you can’t see all the things. Watching something allows you to describe what you hear, see, smell, and feel through words. This will affect my writing by knowing that first drafts take TIME. I have to take my time and get all my ideas down, while the paper develops itself as a whole. I need to get down all of my ideas and make sure I really hon in on what I hear, feel, and smell.
CHARACTER
Anne states, “Knowledge of your characters also emerges the way a Polaroid develops: it takes time for you to know them.” When writing or developing characters, be SPECIFIC. You are going to love some of your characters, because they will remind you of yourself, and you are going to hate some of your characters. Know your characters the best you can, you NEED to familiarize yourself with your characters so that you can really make your story the best it can be. A good way to familiarize is to make your characters based on people you know so you can paint that description for your readers. You have to ask yourself questions like ~ What are your characters routines, beliefs, and what holds their life together? What do they like and hate? What would they write in their personal journals? What do they teach their children? When creating narrators, think of a friend, someone that is reliable and has common flaws. This will affect my writing because I know that my writing will become so much better when I know my characters and base them and the narrator off of people I know. I will also know to be descriptive in everything I do, I can’t sell my readers short.
Marissa's Truth 