Successful writing is not only writing that has to have correct spelling and be grammatically correct but also something that flows, and that the reader can understand. When there are many spelling and grammatical errors it distracts and takes away from what the author is trying to tell. If a story does not flow with a beginning, middle, and end this too can affect the writing in a negative way. With out a successful plot and character development writing can not be very successful. It is also important with your writing to remember audience, if your audience can not understand or relate then writing will not be successful. To have successful writing the author needs to be equipped with spelling and grammar understanding, have a story that the reader can understand, and ultimately the writing flows with a climatic beginning, middle, and end, with character development.
I have a huge fear of writing because I feel as if my writing is not very strong, I have a very hard time with spelling and grammar, and I am very intimidated when it comes to others opinions of my writing. Knowing I have these fears I decided to take this course to get over them and improve my writing. The only way to improve is to keep practicing and face my fears. I hope to improve my writing in so many levels. I hope to learn how to make a story flow. I hope to learn how to make characters come to life as I put them on paper. I hope to create spelling and grammatical error free writing that is appealing to the audience. Ultimately I hope to become more confident in my writing and the only way to do this is with practice and guidance.
I believe a lot of us maintain a certain level of fear when it comes to workshopping and sharing our writing. Each of us have our weaknesses and I think that once you've figured out your own, you can only improve. Grammar and spelling are, in my opinion, an easy fix, and even the best writers need their editors to clean up after them. I also think strong writing emerges after a lot of application and practice, and we should be doing a lot of that in this class.
ReplyDelete-Samantha Markey
I agree with Samantha. Anyone who claims to have absolutely no apprehension about workshopping their writing is either kidding themselves or us. And that fear is a good thing--it means that we want to improve, that we care about our writing.
ReplyDeleteJessica
That fear in the back of your head isn't all that bad, as long as it doesn't stop you from working on your piece. Self-criticism can definitely a good motivator to make your work the best it can be, but don't let it paralyze you while you're writing.
ReplyDeleteI feel that grammar and spelling are secondary (but obviously necessary) to actually getting a story down on paper, so I usually leave editing mechanical details for after the first, or even second draft. More important is creating a concept for your work that you deeply attach yourself to, emotionally or otherwise. Details like character and plot come easily as long as you have a core idea to draw them from.
-Tom