Blog #9 Response

Lamott - "Shitty First Drafts"
The "take away" idea of Lamott's article is that a writer's first draft is by no means the final product. No one can just sit down and immediately start writing greatness. I really like how throughout the article Lamott adds little bits of her personality to the writing. After reading you can tell she's a very spunky and quite the jokester, shown on page 302 para 5, "My writing food reviews had nothing to do with the magazine folding, although every single review did cause a couple of cancelled subscriptions." That particular part doesn't have anything to do with the meaning of the article but she did a good job of keeping the audience's attention. I don't like how easy she makes writing the shitty draft sound. I've never actually tried it but I feel like it wouldn't be so simple to write six pages of rambling.

King - "What Writing Is"
King's article expresses the idea that we do need to take writing seriously, but to remember that everyone writes differently. One piece of writing is not going to be exactly the same as another person's piece of writing. Both may have similar attributes, especially if writing on the same topic, but they do not and will not be identical. Each writer should put their own, personal twist on their writing  When he "telepathically" described the scene to readers King pointed out that everyone's image may be somewhat similar, but each picture has unique qualities, like the color or detail of the table cloth, the measurements of the cage or the size of the bunny. From the description on were my favorite parts of his article. I'm not a huge fan of his opening paragraph, mostly because I was just confused where he was going with it, but by the end I understood.

Diaz - "Becoming a Writer"
In his article, Diaz describes the heartache he went through for five years before realizing that his true calling is writing. The most important part of his article is at the very end of the last paragraph when he writes, "... A writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway." I had to re read this sentence a couple times because I just didn't comprehend it at first. He is saying that no matter how clueless a writer may be, to just keep writing. Even if its awful stuff you would not want anyone to read. This idea reminds me of Lamott's idea of a child like first draft. You just need to write to write and get your feelings out, even if you hate it or are embarrassed by it. These ideas are unfamiliar to me, but I love hearing new beliefs and views on writing.