Mullins posted the link about "Outlining in Reverse" as a suggested blog post and as a writer who both loves and detests prewriting I figured it might be interesting to read and then give thoughts on it.
My Experiences with Prewriting:
I hate prewriting. In elementary school we used to have to do it constantly before every thing that we wrote and then we were graded on it. As a 7-8 year old kid I hated this and thought it was stupid (okay maybe I just didnt want to do it and now that I'm older have formed an actual reason as to why I was opposed to it). We used to have starburst organizer that we would have to fill out these "starburst prewriting work sheets." I have no idea how to describe them, they basically had three sections: topic, details, and explanations (at least I think those are the three) and they where just annoying, theres no way to explain why without a visual of it (and a google search turned up nothing). We also had to do organizer sheets like the classic hamburger organizer and whatever this thing was as well as probably several others that I have repressed from my memory. But it was the fact that we were graded on them that irked me and even stupider was the fact that teachers would be like "Oh, well this is just for you and is a way to help you get your thoughts together" yet they'd grade the things and then tell me it wasnt good enough. How can you tell me my own thoughts that are helping me are in fact not good enough?
Because of my elementary fiasco with prewriting I think I have pushed away most ways of prewriting today and just write and see what happens. This is especially true when I write creatively, I will have an idea in my head and instead of planning it our I just write and see where it takes me. With academic writing, usually the only prewriting I do is may a quick outline on a scrap sheet of paper of what I need to talk about, usually just broad topics, and then make a few more quick notes of some specifics that would go with them. I write and then make minor changes afterwards.
Things From the Article:
The article was written by a writer that also doesnt prewrite, instead they write, getting all there thoughts on paper and then go back and make changes. I can relate to that so I liked the article and understood a lot of what they where saying and that is pretty much all that I was expecting to get out of it. Instead though it gave me a few ideas. Mostly about how to self edit. Like the author I suck at self editing and rely heavily on teachers and friends to give me advice on what to change. I will make minor changes, but what majorly needs to be changed is frequently hard for me to recognize. However the authors idea to turn it into a math equation seems extremely useful and is definitely something I plan to try. In this way I think that I will be able to make my pieces better. Their idea of "Outlining is reverse" or what I'll probably call "post-writing, pre-writing" is something that I'm excited to use and see if it will help benefit my writing in both academic and creative circumstances.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Second Semester Blog Post #2
The ending of The Road was not exactly what I expected that it would be, but even saying that, I'm not entirely certain how I thought the story might end. I knew that it would have to eventually end and I was expected that as all stories do, but I dont know what I was expected, just that it doesnt seem to be that.
Part of me thinks that it is because the story ends with the boy, meaning that the man is no longer in the picture do to his death yet the boy lives on and now has a second chance at a better life. And I guess this makes sense, the boy was the one that was supposidly "carrying the fire" and he was the one that was being protected, the reason for the man to live. But even so for some reason the fact that the story ended with only the boy surprised me.
I think part of me felt that the novel was the man's story, as he was the one that frequently narrated what was going on and the one that had more comments through out the novel. I guess I kind of felt that it was the man's story and the boy just happened to be in it.
I know this isnt completely true and that it was the story of the man and the story of the boy and the story of the road, but even so for some reason I felt the closest to the character of the man, I felt I knew him the most. The road was haunting and eerie, a distant threat and the boy was an intiguing character that I wanted to know more about. But even with this I wasnt quite expecting the man to die.
Even with that I still wanst expecting that the man and the boy would make it to the coast and then find something life changing and live happily ever after. No, that would have been a happy ending to a happy story and The Road is not a happy story.
I am very much satisfied with the ending, even though it probably creates more questions than it answers, I am still satisfied with it somehow. McCarthy did an amazing job of that and I even though there is no resolution outside of the father dying and the boy finding a new family (and several other things so yes there is a great deal of a resolution) there still is closure to the book and the story without actually being closure.
I was excited to find that I did in fact like the ending to the story as my expectations for the book were high and the ending fulfilled them. However part of me was just happy to see that it didnt have a "The Mist" ending (the movie based on the book by Stephen King, not the book itself as I have not read it and it is supposidly drastically different). With all the talk of the gun and how many bullets were left I was expecting it to end in the tragic way that the movie did.
All in all I liked The Road, even if it was the boys story in the end.
Part of me thinks that it is because the story ends with the boy, meaning that the man is no longer in the picture do to his death yet the boy lives on and now has a second chance at a better life. And I guess this makes sense, the boy was the one that was supposidly "carrying the fire" and he was the one that was being protected, the reason for the man to live. But even so for some reason the fact that the story ended with only the boy surprised me.
I think part of me felt that the novel was the man's story, as he was the one that frequently narrated what was going on and the one that had more comments through out the novel. I guess I kind of felt that it was the man's story and the boy just happened to be in it.
I know this isnt completely true and that it was the story of the man and the story of the boy and the story of the road, but even so for some reason I felt the closest to the character of the man, I felt I knew him the most. The road was haunting and eerie, a distant threat and the boy was an intiguing character that I wanted to know more about. But even with this I wasnt quite expecting the man to die.
Even with that I still wanst expecting that the man and the boy would make it to the coast and then find something life changing and live happily ever after. No, that would have been a happy ending to a happy story and The Road is not a happy story.
I am very much satisfied with the ending, even though it probably creates more questions than it answers, I am still satisfied with it somehow. McCarthy did an amazing job of that and I even though there is no resolution outside of the father dying and the boy finding a new family (and several other things so yes there is a great deal of a resolution) there still is closure to the book and the story without actually being closure.
I was excited to find that I did in fact like the ending to the story as my expectations for the book were high and the ending fulfilled them. However part of me was just happy to see that it didnt have a "The Mist" ending (the movie based on the book by Stephen King, not the book itself as I have not read it and it is supposidly drastically different). With all the talk of the gun and how many bullets were left I was expecting it to end in the tragic way that the movie did.
All in all I liked The Road, even if it was the boys story in the end.
Second Semester Blog Post #1
I've decided that I want to blog about the road for today. So far I really am enjoying the novel and find Cormac McCarthy to be an awesome writer. Going into reading the book for class I was really excited that we would be getting to read The Road as I had heard a lot of really good things about it, specifically from my sister who highly reccomended it. I'm glad that the book is very much living up to the reviews that it was given as I hate to hear a lot of really good things about a book and then it ends up being a flop.
One of the things that I am oddly enjoying is using the envelope passages to track the story. When I first started it I figured that I would end up hating it and would just be doing it for the grade, however as I continue to do it I like that it gives me a way to track the progress of the book. I also like that it makes me slow down and think about the different aspects that are present in the book.
For my two topics I was tracking dreams/flash backs and faith/religion. Both of these pull out some interesting quotes and pieces in the novel however, the relationship with the mother during the mans flashbacks is something that greatly intrigues me. It is evident that she is no longer traveling with the man and the boy but we only get pieces of what happen with her and all revealed slowly over time. It is also interesting the tie that the mother and death seem to have with one another, as both of them seem to linger over the man and the boy, close enough that they can almost reach them several times, yet far enough away that they are never caught by either.
As the novel progresses I will be extremely interested to learn more about what happened with the mother and what her relationship with death (other than that she appears to be dead) is.
One of the things that I am oddly enjoying is using the envelope passages to track the story. When I first started it I figured that I would end up hating it and would just be doing it for the grade, however as I continue to do it I like that it gives me a way to track the progress of the book. I also like that it makes me slow down and think about the different aspects that are present in the book.
For my two topics I was tracking dreams/flash backs and faith/religion. Both of these pull out some interesting quotes and pieces in the novel however, the relationship with the mother during the mans flashbacks is something that greatly intrigues me. It is evident that she is no longer traveling with the man and the boy but we only get pieces of what happen with her and all revealed slowly over time. It is also interesting the tie that the mother and death seem to have with one another, as both of them seem to linger over the man and the boy, close enough that they can almost reach them several times, yet far enough away that they are never caught by either.
As the novel progresses I will be extremely interested to learn more about what happened with the mother and what her relationship with death (other than that she appears to be dead) is.
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