Reader progress and improvements in the writing process

.....filled with confidence that I was going to impress people with what I had to say. Of course, when my first assignment received constructive criticism, I reeled. Since then, I have cultivated a sense of humility and a greater realism in my approach to writing. I think more about my goals with each piece, keeping in mind my audience. If my audience is hostile to my ideas, and I am writing to persuade them, I anticipate what they might say to counteract each of my points. Then, I start the process of outlining and jotting down ideas. What I used to find annoying, restrictive, and tedious I now find to be the most enjoyable aspect of writing. When outlining and brainstorming ideas, I do not need to worry about form and style, or tone and diction. All I need to be concerned about is the veracity of my statements, the organization of my composition or storyline, and flushing out all ideas. If I outline and pre-write well, I write much better, and this is the most valuable lesson I have learned so far. When I read other peoples' work, I appreciate a logical flow of ideas and clarity often even more so than clever turns of phrase.

That is not to say I do not appreciate masterful sentence construction or clever phrasing. My main point of weakness in writing is coming up with snappy metaphors. I envy the witty writers who can create meaningful analogies and metaphors and use them judiciously. I tend to fall into the trap of cliches, or I avoid metaphors altogether because I do not trust my ability to make one work. I believe that I need to practice the art of metaphor more in my writing. Since starting this course, I have become more aware of the importance of saying something a number of different ways: the metaphoric is among the most effective. I tend to write in a straightforward manner. My choice of words, my diction, can be admirable at times, but not my overall presentation. It is something I hope to work on in the future. In the meantime, I will focus on my strengths as a writer, which include not only diction, but the ability to remain stylistically consistent, grammatically correct, and succinct. If I can say something in one sentence, I will. I prefer to use as few words as possible, whereas many writers will spend a page to say what can be said in a paragraph. In this class, I have learned how to be self-critical and cut out extraneous sentences and passages. Perhaps one of the most valuable lessons I have learned in this class is in fact how to be a strong editor.

Yet being a strong editor ironically means shutting down self-censorship. Self-censorship has been my biggest impediment. That is exactly why I have come to appreciate the pre-writing and outline stages of the process as much as I do -- those are like sacred times for me, where I let my mind become loose and my thoughts unfettered. Whatever comes to my head, I write it down. The free-writing process liberates me psychologically. I might cut out 90% of what I jotted down, but the remaining 10% is far more valuable material than the material I would have come up with had I been dismissing every thought out of hand. I believe that the most important thing for me to improve my writing is to write as much as possible, whenever possible, and wherever possible. If I am waiting for a plane at the airport, I can write down observations about people or about security, or about something I just saw on the news. The more I write, the better I become at writing. This is true for both fiction and nonfiction. As I reflect on this and other courses I have taken, I also notice some of the differences between my fiction and nonfiction writing. My nonfiction writing tends to be stronger than my fiction writing. I have never been a good storyteller, but would like to learn how to be one.

I have progressed in terms of my command of different genres and subjects. I feel that I have the capacity to write about almost any subject, as long as I do some research beforehand. When I think about it, this class has shown me the value of research even in creative writing. I used to think that fiction writers simply started with a blank page and let the story flow. How foolish I was! A fiction writer needs to do as much research as a nonfiction writer. When a fiction writer develops characters for a story, that person needs to learn about every aspect of the characters' lives. If one character is a military officer, the author needs to interview military officers to get an idea of what they go through, what their thought processes are, and how they think and feel about the issues impacting their daily lives. The same is true for the setting or context of a story. A writer cannot simply decide to set a novel in the 1960s or in the 1560s without researching what life was like in those eras. A writer who does not do research will end up with serious anachronisms and potential plot holes that will destroy the person's chances for success. Good writers are diligent and willing to take the time to research their characters and settings before they even begin the process of putting the pen to paper.

Finally, I have learned to write about what I know and write to my strengths. This does not mean I eschew a challenge. On the contrary, challenging myself with projects like fiction writing and poetry have been instrumental in developing a sense of humility and realism in terms of what I am truly capable of. These projects can also be fun in same way solving a difficult puzzle is fun. It is always good practice to stretch out boundaries and write in genres that are hard for us, or write about issues we know little about. In the end, though, we will write with more passion and conviction when we write about what we know in a way that is comfortable to us. I have learned to value what I am good at instead of lamenting the way I want to be as a writer. I might never be a famous writer, or even a writer who receives critical acclaim. Hopefully, I can make a meaningful enough impact on a large enough number of people that my work becomes useful to the world.