Good, bad, or memorable writing experiences
I have never been much of a poetry writer, but I took a chance as an eleventh grader and submitted a poem to our school’s literary magazine. I didn’t have the balls to take ownership of my own work, so I submitted it anonymously. Having it published was a wonderful experience, and though it was a bit of a cop-out, I enjoyed having it be anonymous, I could hear people comment on it truthfully as if it didn’t actually belong to the person sitting next to them. It gave me some good confidence as a writer that carries me even now, despite the fact that I haven’t been able to publish my writing, but only my artwork ever since.
Another example was at a release party for the literary magazine, the Ivory Tower, where I saw someone reading the blurb I had written to go along with my photo… she liked what I wrote well enough to copy it down into her own copy of the magazine.
What do we believe about writing? What do others seem to believe? What is "good" writing? What/who are "good" writers?
I believe that writing is about storytelling. And there are tools that you can use that make you more able to say what you really mean… to tell your story in a more honest way.
I have found that students often view writing as laborious and boring, even when teachers give them choice or when teachers try to come up with prompts that are meant to be stimulating. I don’t know how to solve that problem… one that seems so engrained by secondary school. I also think students and indeed many or most adults feel that writing is daunting because of the fear of looking stupid as a result of poor form. Many students in my generation suffer from All-My-English-Teachers-Hated-Grammar-Too Syndrome, to the point that even my husband (who is a very smart man and beat me on the ACTs) doesn’t know what an adverb is without reminding. And to the point that one of my Crosswinds students crumpled up his free-write and threw it on the ground because another student was making fun of his spelling.
I think that good writers are ones that create newness by bending how we think of literature and are able to teach us something worthwhile about the human experience through emotion that emulates from their words. So as teachers, I think we are faced with finding out what students are emotional about and getting them to write about it. That, however, is admittedly easier said than done.
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I turn my back for one second and look what you do: write a blog post. How dare you?
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ReplyDeleteI found this to be a very thought provoking post, Brittany. You really got me thinking of the relationships/distinctions between the concepts of "ownership" and "anonymity."
ReplyDeleteAlthough you discuss that you didn't feel comfortable with claiming literal ownership of your poem and instead wished to remain anonymous, I would still argue that you maintained an extremely high degree of ownership throughout the writing process and with your poem. Although I of course only know of the experience from what you have posted here, I feel as though I can infer several details about your relationship with the piece:
1.) You cared about it enough to write it.
2.) Although anonymously, you decided it was important enough to share with others.
3.) What I feel is most important and perhaps paradoxical of all, you were afraid to publicly attach your identity to it :)
In my weird and backwards logic, I would almost argue that your case perfectly exemplifies the potentially paradoxical relationship between anonymity and ownership. Mainly, students who wish to remain anonymous may perceive the strongest, perhaps ultimate, senses of ownership with their writing. Think about it. Why else would students hesitate to literally/publicly claim the piece as theirs?
Although there might be many answers to this question, I feel as though one potential answer is that the student who wishes to remain anonymous has put so much effort, so much thought, so much time, and staked so much of their identity into a salient burst of text that sharing it publicly creates difficult to deal with levels of anxiety. Instead of wishing to remain anonymous because they feel that it "sucks" or is "stupid" (and I feel a lot of students might say this no matter what), I would argue that many students wish to remain anonymous because they are so attached to their writing, claiming such high degrees of ownership, that any negative/critical response would literally cripple them. Now I'm not saying that there aren't students that blow off assignments and wish to remain anonymous because they didn't do the work, but I feel as though the urge for anonymity stems much more frequently from feelings of investment, ownership, and pride vs. apathy.
Just a thought. I sincerely hope this discussion comes up in class :)
Wow. I think your post responding to my post was better than my original post. "Well Said Rick."
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