In the book Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, part three focuses writers block. “Writers Block” is the term for when an author can not get he/shes thoughts together and is unable to present them on paper. She explains the feelings of writers block as “anxious”. She explains that writers block is inevitable to everyone. She explains that “you will read what little you’ve written lately and see with absolute clarity that it is total dog shit”, this was an amazing writing technique because for such a scary topic, she added humor.
Anne Lamott then breaks down the terrible experience. First the word block, meaning “stuck or constipated” (Lamott, 178). Then how the emptiness can destroy writers, and how everyone has their off days. Lastly, she talks
about how to escape the writers block. “The problem is acceptance, which is something we’re taught not to do. We’re taught to improve uncomfortable situations, to change things, alleviate unpleasant feelings” (Lamott, 178). This quote is explaining the key to “free yourself”. Once a person accepts something, the topic becomes less hectic, allowing your brain to have free thoughts. This is very helpful to many young writers. I love writing papers, but if it is a topic I do not feel strongly about, it is hard to gather all my thoughts and project them. Lamott refers to a story where her doctor gave her advice six months before her friend passed, “Watch her carefully right now, because she's teaching you how to live” (Lamott 179). She refers to this quote when she cannot finish her papers, or work. If you were going to die tomorrow, what would you say? Soon, thoughts and opinions flow out of ones brain, because if you only have one day left, how do you leave your mark on the world. I compared this to “If the paper is due tomorrow, and I have nothing done, how can I word this paper to have a influence on whoever is reading it. Every single person goes through a stage where it is hard to write, but it shall pass.
... being driven out of her mind, so writing is one of the only things she can do to keep herself occupied. “I know I shouldn’t write but I’ve got to do something.She writes about everything that she is experiencing, and while every once and a while looks back into the past, she is usually in the present. This is written in first person point of view as well.
In Francine Prose’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read her purpose is to inform the audience that books presented to high school and college students are not to study the language, words, and value of a text, but to study and bring up discussion on other topics such as racial discrimination and human nature. She does this through the use of long sentences, which are separated by commas and dashes, and appositives. Prose effectively achieves rhetoric because she appeals to ethos, logos, and pathos.
The novel Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is a book that was written in order to provide “Some instructions on writing and life.” Lamott published the book in 1994 in hopes to share the secrets of what it is truly like to be a writer, as both a warning and as encouragement. Bird by Bird shares with the reader the ironic truth of being a struggling writer through personal experience and humorous stories. Lamott uses memories from her past to help illustrate her points and to help the reader get to know who she is, not only as a writer, but as a person. The author focuses on the true struggles and benefits of being a writer while using metaphors and analogies to express her points, she also wraps her life stories around almost every writing tip.
...e does not discuss what she is writing, while she is writing it. She is afraid that if she speaks of it, it will wear out her idea. She says, “If you want to be a writer, I have two pieces of advice. One is to be a reader. I think that's one of the most important parts of learning to write. The other piece of advice is: Just do it! Don't think about it, don't agonize, sit down and write”.
I have chosen to write about Virginia Woolf, a British novelist who wrote A Room of One’s Own, To the Lighthouse and Orlando, to name a few of her pieces of work. Virginia Woolf was my first introduction to feminist type books. I chose Woolf because she is a fantastic writer and one of my favorites as well. Her unique style of writing, which came to be known as stream-of-consciousness, was influenced by the symptoms she experienced through her bipolar disorder. Many people have heard the word "bipolar," but do not realize its full implications. People who know someone with this disorder might understand their irregular behavior as a character flaw, not realizing that people with bipolar mental illness do not have control over their moods. Virginia Woolf’s illness was not understood in her lifetime. She committed suicide in 1941.
In the excerpt “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott found in Bird by Bird the writer is explaining the benefits of writing the first draft with whatever comes to mind with no limitations. The thesis is “even better news than that of short assignments is the idea of shitty first drafts.” This is the thesis because it makes the reader wonder what exactly the writer is talking about. Lammott states that many writers, including herself, rarely know what they are doing until they are in the mist of doing it or have done it recently. She expresses that many writers get discouraged and upset with their selves and have to go do something else and come back to the work that she is working on. In paragraph five, it shows how a simple food review intimidated her, and she struggled with producing quality works unless she let it all come out in a limitless first draft. When preparing a food review for California magazine Lamott began by writing twice as much as she should, it would normally have a boring beginning, and stupefying descriptions of the meals. After the first draft she would take a break from writing, her nerves were shot and she felt as if her talent was vanishing. The following day she would sit down and go through it using a
When the only way out of a society based prison is to lose sense of all reality, then losing sense of reality it shall be. In the short story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Jane (the narrator) becomes obsessed with the wall-paper in her bedroom, which really is a prison that has been forced on her by her husband. Jane is an imaginative young lady who enjoys writing stories, however her husband forbids her to write. Jane is suffering from a nervous condition and her husband, who is also her doctor, feels he knows what is best to keep his wife from going mad. This leaves Jane trapped in a room with no imaginative outlet, surrounded by the god awful wall-paper that begins to close in on her sanity one day at a time.
In "Shitty First Drafts" by Anne Lamott expresses the reality of famous writing like herself. Writing isn't something that just comes naturally, its a process. As students today are taught in schools of simple writing due to the teachers assigning the main topic and demonstrates the 5 paragraph papers that the final draft should look like in order to be completed, which students still use this method today, at least I know I do. Thousands of famous writer's brainstorm and go through multiple concepts to get just a topic down to write about. As Anne explains her processes readers can gather her information to help them in their writing as well. This is were the story of Anne Lamott sinks in, this isn't just a story about writers like herself
Under the orders of her husband, the narrator is moved to a house far from society in the country, where she is locked into an upstairs room. This environment serves not as an inspiration for mental health, but as an element of repression. The locked door and barred windows serve to physically restrain her: “the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.” The narrator is affected not only by the physical restraints but also by being exposed to the room’s yellow wallpaper which is dreadful and fosters only negative creativity. “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.”
Anyone who is doing any type of writing piece has a process. They may not know it but it is there and it exists. It is one’s approach to their piece and how they go about accomplishing it. It has to do with how you write it, how many drafts you do, as well as your revision process if you even have one. My writing process however has room for improvement. A summation of my writing process consist of heavy planning, one draft, and little revisions. Anne Lamott, Shirley Rose, and Kathleen Yancey all drew attention to major points through their writing pieces that support and dispute my writing process. Through their pieces they have found a way to inspire, inform, and entertain me all at the same time while passing along great information that
I am sitting in my bed, thinking about my process of writing as I am trying to go through it. It seems the more I think about it, the less I understand it. When I am writing, I don’t think. Which I know, sounds bad. But, I spend every single moment of every single day over thinking, over analyzing, and over assuming every aspect of my life. When I’m writing, I’m free from that for just a little bit. Until of course, my hands stop typing or the pencil (no pens- never pens) stops moving, then I’m right back on the carousel that is my brain. Heidi Estrem says, “...writers use writing to generate knowledge that they didn’t have before.” (Writing is a Knowledge-Making Activity 18). I believe my ability to write without an exact destination
As Marcia so eloquently puts it: “‘People will do anything for me – but publish my manuscripts.’” (88). She goes on to describe how she has had “‘…printed forms of rejection from every magazine and literary newspaper in the country.’” (89), and only had a two-inch snippet of her work posted in a Sunday paper throughout her three-year career. But when asked by the narrator if she is ready to give up, Marcia so eloquently says “‘No; not if it were ten years instead of three.’” (89), showing her true persistence as a writer.
Greg Johnson, a professor in the English department of Kennesaw State University, takes note of how the narrator was treated as a patient in a type of hospital, potentially a mental ward, with how the “windows of her room are barred, and just outside the door is a gate,” not forgetting to mention that even “her bed, [was] nailed to the floor” (526). The treatment of the narrator, who was a seemingly normal woman at the beginning, led her to behavior that could be described as “an expression of long-suppressed rage: a rage which causes a temporary breakdown” (522). This rage builds continuously through the story aimed almost always at
Wings wrapped and snapped the highest tree limbs, claws lacerated the trunks, bleeding sticky with sap. I could smell it. "Oh yeah. This was definitely it!"
“Simon Says” is a game commonly played among children of all ages, but especially younger children in many different cultures. “Simon Says” requires there to be one leader who is called Simon. Simon states orders to the other players such as “jump up and down”, “pat your head”, “rub your stomach”, etc. The trick is that unless Simon says “Simon Says” before the action, the other players must not perform the action stated by Simon. This game may address the social development of children because they are required to pay attention to their peers and what they are saying. This game may also address the physical development of children by motivating them to be active by performing various physical activities. Good Start Grow Smart standard