Chanda+Flippo's+First+Essay

Chanda Flippo Intro to College Writing 1310 Dr. Vanderslice **How I Perceive Myself as a Writer **  Writing is a difficult subject for me. It has never been my strong suit nor will it ever be. I am not a good writer at all and often I will make major writing mistakes. I enjoy reading other peoples writing though, but do not feel the want to write unless it is in my journal. I do not particularly perceive myself as a good writer. My writing process is not very good and could greatly be improved. I enjoy stories and dislike essays and reports. And not very many writing rules help me. I might not be the best writer but I’m the only me writer. I am the only writer who writes and thinks exactly like me.  When thinking of myself as a writer, well quite honestly I don’t want to think about it. I am not a natural born writer. My words do not flow naturally or come out smooth. I cannot sit down and write without thinking about a million other things. Once I get into my writing I get stumped and it makes me not want to finish my piece of writing. I am a bad writer in my opinion. When thinking about it I do not see myself as the kind of person that is meant to write. I don’t feel like I could write an amazing story, or bring an article or piece of writing to life. I do not feel like I could give writing any animation.. I am still trying to tell myself to write a “shitty first draft” even while writing this paper. When I write without being given a topic it is hard for me to finally decide the topic I will write about. Narrowing down topics I do pick is hard for me because then I feel like I do not have enough material to talk about. And then I get worked up about it and get frustrated which makes it hard for me to finish. I guess the biggest reason that I do not think I am a good writer is because in school I only did average on essays and writing. My teachers always told me that I didn’t have a good flow and my writing was not the best it could be. The way I perceive my writing does not help me to be the best writer that I can be. Looking down on myself so much as a writer probably makes me worse I feel that if I were to be more positive about my writing and not be so brutal I would be a better writer. But hopefully I can become a better writer now that I have realized this about myself. Writing for me is very difficult. When starting my writing I sit down and make an outline of what I am going to write about. I group each subject into its own area and put like subjects with it. My favorite method to use when writing is to start out with webs to organize my topics and supporting statements. I like to use this method because when I think about all of this in my head it’s chaos and feels like everything is linked somehow with a string in between the thoughts. When I start my actual writing most of the time I skip the introduction and head straight to the body. I do this because the introduction and conclusion are the hardest for me to write. After writing the body I will go back to the introduction then I will finish the paper with the conclusion. I finish my writing with the conclusion because that is the hardest paragraph for me to write. It is hard for me because you most generally have to restate some of your previous writing from your introductory paragraph and I am not very good at restating any writing or condensing it.  My favorite way to write is not to be in a quiet or hectic room. I like to be in a calm relaxed setting. I can deal with a bit of background noise. I do not like to feel like I am being pushed to write though or like I have to get it done in a short amount of time. Being rushed makes it harder for me to write and concentrate on my writing. To help me be creative I like to play Jack Johnson softly in the background. My writing process is not perfect but it works for me. Some types of writing are easier for me than others. My favorite type of writing is story telling. I like this type of writing because you get to be creative and it flows so much more naturally than other writing. Whether it is telling a story that you made up or a story about your life they are all so much fun. I think that one of the reasons that I like story writing so much is because I love to read stories. Stories such as romances and most of all Nicholas Sparks. The hardest type of writing for me would have to be writing reports or essays. Writing reports and essays are (in my opinion) very boring and hard to get interested in. When writing reports you have to do research which can be very difficult if you are not interested in your topic because you won’t want to read about something that you are not interested in. I think that essays and reports at most have a few fun facts but I wouldn’t want to sit and write about something for the facts unless I are very passionate about the topic. More of writing rules block me than ones that do not. Actually quite a few of writing rules make it hard for me to continue to write. And sometimes I do not follow them all. Staying on topic is one of the rules that I have trouble with. It is very hard for me to think about one thing at a time so my mind starts to wonder then I think that I should just go ahead and put that into my writing. It is also hard for me to use good verbs. It took me a very long time to even remember what verbs are and sometimes it can be difficult to pick a good one to put into your writing. Another writing rule that sometimes gets me is to write a first draft. Sometimes I get behind and I do not want to write a first draft but to just write my final draft and tweak it on the review of my essay. I feel like now more than ever it is hard not to write like you text. If you get really into your writing it’s hard to stop and think about if you are spelling everything out or short wording it. Going on from texting and writing it is also hard not to use slang. I grew up in the country so it is hard not to use country slang when writing but most of the time I catch it. Growing up in the country of Berryville, Arkansas also made it hard to use proper grammar in my writing. There are so many rules that are hard for me to follow.  When thinking about all the writing rules that are hard for me to follow it is unbelievable that there are some that are easy for me to follow. I am decent at being and staying organized. It is not very hard for me to come up with a catchy opening statement. I can plot similar things together most of the time. Also, I always remember to indent all of my paragraphs. And I think that I back up my points fairly well. The transition from high school writing to college writing is a bit hard for me because the rules are a little different but I think that I have more freedom in college writing.  Chapter two helped me a lot in my writing. I think that what I learned in chapter two will aid me in my writing. I feel like the authors writing about their writing makes me a more confident writer. Chapter two made me think about how I am not the only person out there that has difficulty writing and I am not the only one that needs help. I think that after reading chapter two I have become more aware of how I write and how I can become a better writer in the future. I think that reading the article “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott had the biggest effect on my writing because she made me realize that it was okay to not have a perfect first draft and that there are always ways to improve it.