End of Week One

Anne Lamott's approach to writing is that you always need to write poor rough drafts. The number one misconception is that writers just go out and write the entire book or article in one swift effort. The real secret is to write poor first drafts. She claims that writing a poor first draft is the key to writing a good second draft, which will lead to a terrific third draft. Lamott says that if you just throw all of the thoughts and ideas running through your head onto paper, it will allow you to make changes to better your paper as you continue to work on it. She says that no one will see the first draft so you can write what you feel, knowing that you can edit it on your next run through the paper editing process.

Lorrie Moore's thoughts on writing consist largely on creativity. She talks about how no writing has blended genres, a fiction story is a fiction story. She says that you have to imagine character personas, each one being different, but involving at least one similar quality as you. Moore says to take one story, such as a car ride with your uncle, and change it into a violent happening. Her moral is that if you happen to make a mistake in your writing, go with it. If you are writing and you happen to talk about something that is not making much sense, continue to talk about it and give details about it until it does. I believe she is implying this in her story about a college student who gets put in a creative writing course instead of their computer course. Even though it wasn't what that student had intended, they ended up staying with the course and really liking it.

Gale Godwin's take on writing is all about dealing with your "Watcher", which is anything that will prohibit the flow of creativity through your thoughts. She goes on to give different examples of watchers: compulsive looker-uppers, people who don't want to risk making a fool of themselves in their writings, and anything that can be a distraction, such as procrastination of a writing until after the dentist appointment. She tells you how to cope with your watcher and how to outsmart it, so you can write with ease.

Overal I think that all three of these writers are using their personal experience to help the reader to write a better paper, they all give a problem, and the key to solving it. All three of these writers address different areas where you can be the most efficient writer as possible, from rough drafts, to utilizing your creativity, to dealing with obstacles that are in the way of your creative writing.