Q1. The piece I would say I was most proud of was a creative
nonfiction piece I wrote in Karen Uehling’s English 401 class and presented at
the National Undergraduate literature conference at Weber State last March.
What makes me so proud of the piece was I did learn the most from it in terms
of disclosure, honesty, and growth during the writing process. That piece
taught me a lot about myself as a writer and a person.
Q3. I consider myself a writer. I think the last three
semesters have really inspired a growth in my confidence level regarding my
writing abilities and made me feel more at ease in calling myself a writer. I
think in the same token my opinion on what makes someone a writer has changed.
I used to believe that in order to call yourself a writer you had to be
professionally published, however I now believe that being a published is a
major step in the process, but I have to be a writer in order to be published.
What makes me a writer is my desire, interest and dedication to writing. My
ability to experiment and step outside my comfort zone and write down the
things that come to me.
Q4. I think the most important knowledge I have learned is
that it’s ok to take risks. By pushing my own boundaries on style, form, and
content I produce better work and I see growth in my content and more importantly
my quality of work. I’ve also learned that with rhetoric in particular that if
you aren’t passionate and believe in what you’re writing about that the quality
of work will suffer dramatically.
Q8. My dream job would be to complete my law degree and work
for a corporation or health organization that focusses on public policy and
advocacy for health care and social services benefits. I am particularly interested in working for a
healthcare organization and specialize in advocacy for healthcare for children
who are from underserved populations or come from areas of abuse or neglect in
making sure they receive proper care to thrive.
Hi Becca,
ReplyDeleteCan you say more about the piece you wrote in Karen's class? It's striking how generative the experience was for you as a writer ("disclosure, honesty, and growth"), and I'd like to know more about how a piece of writing can be that powerful. We might all learn from your experience about the types of writing projects that inspire such growth and learning. Also, in Q4 you write about taking risks. I think we would all generally agree that risk-taking is useful in most professional endeavors (maybe life, too). But as a writer, what exactly do you mean by risk? And if it often leads to growth and learning, why is it so difficult at times?
I wrote a memoir piece on losing my vision and really explored my own feelings about the experience and the time period, and how I feel about it now reflecting back almost a decade later. As well as looking at and examining how other people view my loss of ability. I think anytime as a writer we talk about subjects that make us vulnerable it exposes us to criticism on topics that are sensitive in nature but it also makes us grow as a writer because we learn to examine our emotions and channel that vulnerability into making our piece stronger. I think as a write we take risks by pushing our personal boundaries on topics and themes in our writing. I also think by taking risks the main element is to step outside of our comfort zone and explore aspects of ourselves and our writing that may make us uncomfortable. What makes taking risks difficult is that element of making ourselves vulnerable and opening ourselves up to criticism. I think nonfiction in particular is more risky that way because it’s not just opening our writing up to others for them to pass judgement on but it’s opening up pieces of our self, our story, and our lives.
DeleteSounds like the memoir piece might be a good candidate for the re-genre project? Writing is inherently vulnerable, especially nonfiction, don't you think? There are all sorts of strategies for coping with this, including the academic move of sidelining the "I," but even that doesn't work too well. To some extent, dealing with the vulnerability requires a kind of faith in the work that is hard to come by. I hope we can talk more about this in class.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI love your points in Q3. These are your own words that you're using to describe your personal journey, but I 100% agree that all it takes to make someone a writer is "desire, interest and dedication to writing."
ReplyDelete