What I Need to Know about WRITING AND WRITERS to Become a Better Writer

After hearing all four speakers I definately learned a lot about writing that I didn't know before. There are so many different forms of writing and each form speaks to the reader/audience in a different way. Poetry speaks to the reader through rhythm, sound, repitition and rhyme. It's like hearing a song or a melody when you read a poem. Sometimes you make up your own rhythm when it's a free verse poem. Oral storytelling really engages the audience and is a real experience becuase you can hear and see the presenter. You see their facial expressions and body movements and it makes the story that much more exciting and real. It is told directly from them and their point of view. Myserty creates a whole other world with made up characters and plots. If you are reading a good book you will get so lost in it you won't know how much time has gone by until 3 hours have passed. That's what I find so amazing how writing can take us to a whole other world. When we read something that really touches us in a certain way, makes us laugh, cry, smile, we lose oursevles for a little while. I think this is the beauty of writing, I think it's why writers write and why readers read. To get into that zone where you can't put a book down or read a poem that makes you cry or read a book over and over just because you love it that much. I want to know what makes this happen. What makes writing speak to readers? How does it grab their attention and lock them in? What is it about a piece of writing that makes the reader listen and react?

1/17 Speaker ****

Round Four= Marni Gillard

         I think there are a lot of things that work very welll in the journey chapter. I think right away in the first paragraph the story pulls you in. It's always good when a reader has questions in the beginning because it makes them want to find the answers to the questions. After the first paragraph I'm already wondering about her life and her family and what they went through after her dad passed away. "I first wrote a brief story of that evening as a Christmas gift for my mother. She and I had grown closer since my pregnancy, and I secretly hoped the story might help us share memories of my dad. He died in a one-car accident shortly after I turned thirteen. Mom’s way of handling it was, “It’s over. We have to move on.” So we all dealt with the shock and sorrow of it privately or not at all. As if it were invisible."
          I really like how she started the piece by bringing emotion and some backround information to make the story become so real right away. Marni uses such amazing language to share her mothers emotions and I think this is really touching and it triggers my emotional side. It helps me understand how Marni and her mother are feeling. "Reading my high dive story gift, Mom briefly opened her safety deposit box of emotions...But later, the way people return holiday decorations to the attic, Mom and I filed away the story, and any further talk of Dad." I think it's important how she talks about why she chose to tell stories instead of writing them but I think that part ccould be cut down a little like maybe taking out why fiction writing didn't appeal to  her. "Fiction writing didn’t appeal to me. My own experiences and understandings were puzzle enough." I think it's more important to explain why she loves to tell stories and less about how it happened like becoming a teacher. Those facts are still important but she could take out a few parts.
          I also really like how Marni explains that each time she tells the story it's different. Since she doesn't have it written down you know it comes from her heart everytime and she's not just repeating the same words over and over. Each time she tells the story it tells her something new about her life that she didn't realize before. "Once it surfaced, I realized the child narrator had more to tell me about what “she” had hidden for years." Her character in the story of herself as a child comes out when she tells the story. She also explains how the audience can dictate how she tells the story... "Every gasp or laugh, every puzzled or entranced face potentially affects the story, if I let it. Each of these details appeared because of some listener’s response: the drawn-out sound-effect of falling from the board, the smack as I hit the water, the way I wiggle my ruffle-bottomed suit and snap my bathing cap, my frown at the big kids' teasing, and Dad’s blowing bubbles with Meg. Details come and go, if I stay present to the memory as it surfaces."

1/12 Speaker= ****

Round Three= Mary Moriarty

            A villanelle follows a specific pattern of rhyme and stanzas. There are 19 lines and 6 stanzas. The first 5 stanzas all have 3 lines and the last stanza has 4 lines. Throughout the poem there is a repeating rhyme sound of the last word on the line. Every other stanza the first and third lines rhyme and in the last stanza the last 2 lines rhyme. So in stanzas 1, 3, and 5 the first and third lines rhyme and in stanza 6 the last two lines rhyme. In this pattern the same rhyme is continued throughout the entire piece. I also noticed that there are only 3 words used to rhyme. In One Art by Elizabeth Bishop the rhyming words are master, disaster and faster.

“The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

places, and names, and where it was you meant

to travel. None of these will bring disaster.” This is an example of the third stanza where the first and third lines rhyme.  Elizabeth repeats certain lines in the poem. “The art of losing isn’t hard to master” is repeated 4 times in the poem.

My Villanelle:

The ocean calls to me

As I watch the waves pat the shore.

The world below the surface beyond what I can see.

The water is a vast wonderland,

begging me to explore.

The ocean calls to me.

The ocean calls to me

as the waves crash to the shore.

I want to escape beneath them, where I can be free.

The water holds unknown answers

to what lurks behind the door.

The waves hold the key.

The waves try to reach and grab me,

to pull me underwater where I can soar

in a world extensively free.

I lay in the sand and wonder

what it would be like to explore

the world of the sea.

The ocean calls to me.

            Julia Copus’ poem The Back Seat of My Mother's Car is like a mirror or symmetrical. She repeats the same exact words from the first stanza to the second stanza just in the opposite order so that the first line of the first stanza is the last line of the second stanza. She begins the poem with “We left before I had time to comfort you, to tell you that we nearly touched hands in that vacuous half-dark” and ends the poem with “…hands in that vacuous half-dark. I wanted
to comfort you, to tell you that we nearly touched. We left before I had time.” It’s almost the exact opposite but the order of the words but it’s changed a little to make sense. It was like reading two different versions of the same poem. She breaks up the middle of her sentences a lot like Susan Cominos.

“I was calling to you – Daddy! – as we screeched away

into
the distance, my own hand tingling like an

amputation.” This makes the poem read differently and sound different than how you might think.

            I enjoyed reading the poems from photographs. Both Sharon Olds poem and Mimi Moriarty’s poem described the picture without saying too much. It was like they told a story but left it up to you to fill in the missing pieces of the story. There isn’t enough information to know exactly what is in the picture just enough to be able to infer and imagine your own story of what the photograph tells. In Mimi’s poem, Track Photo, she leaves you wondering what happened after reading the poem. “How could we abandon you in a wall when all you wanted to do was run.” You wonder why he was abandoned and what was he running from? Since she doesn’t tell you, you can make up your own story or try to guess what she is telling about the photograph. In Mimi’s poem Fatherland she talks about the photograph in a different way. She is telling a story about the story of the photograph. I like this poem because it gives more clues to what the photograph is about like her childhood and her father coming home. “I remember little of his charred homecoming, the fog of my childhood muddles the fatherless beginning, the hollow middle with its coatless summers.” You can infer that maybe her father was in a war and the photograph was a terrible reminder of it that he didn’t want to talk about.

My Photograph Poem:

I’ll never forget that vacation,

when we transported to another world,

where dreams really do come true.

Where everything was magical.

We laughed, we sang, we danced,

we smiled.

It was like walking into a movie

where princesses marry princes

and heroes fight villains

and everything ends happily ever after.

I wish we could stay there forever.

The five of us together as a family

in a world where there are no limits

and imagination never ends.

1/10 Speaker= ***

Round Two= Marilyn Kemp

Marilyn Kemp is a very intriguing writer. She uses vivid detail and literary devices to create a more real experience. As I was reading the excerpt from her book Death of a Dancing Master I was picturing in my mind the scene as Jacob Joyliffe barged into Perkney’s house. It was easy to do this because of how clearly she described what was happeneing like when she says "There was a round table to the right, with paper, a quill, an inkpot and a silver tray for calling cards upon it.  A narrow chair set next to the table.  To his left the wall held hooks for coats and cloaks.  Beneath the hooks a small rug covered the floor, with a bootjack for removing muddy footwear." She describes every little detail about the scenery like what was on the table, the walls, the floor etc. Marilyn does this throughout the excerpt and it makes the story more realistic and interesting as if you are really there. She also uses metaphors and similes to describe the characters emotions and actions. She describes how Joyliffe feels after finding Perkney dead ".  Joyliffe gazed in horror, unable to turn his head from the sight, unable to move, unable to cry out.  His brain was filled with wool, his jaw as frozen as ice, his throat as parched as sand." The matephor "filled with wool" and simile  "parched as sand" show how shocked and in disbelief Joyliffe was. It makes the story more entertaining than simply saying "he was in shock". I thought she did a nice job of giving personality to her characters. Right in the first paragraph you get a sense of how Joyliffe is a gentleman "No matter – the young man felt it his duty to tender an apology for his intemperate words, and apologize he would." Also when she says "He’d hurried back on purpose, in painful shortness of breath, so that he would not interrupt the man’s lessons, even if he could not approve of the man’s lesson in lascivious and wanton dance." Even though Perkney isn't in the excerpt as much she also describes his personality "Perkney was quite particular about his guests removing their muddy clogs or boots." Overall I thought the excerpt was appealing and something I would consider reading.

Questions: How do you create a plot for a mystery to make sure all the pieces fit together in the end?
 How can you make sure you create characters that are realistic?

1/6 Speaker= *** stars

Round One: Susan Comninos

Susan Comninos has a style of poetry that is very different from poetry that I'm used to reading. Her poems aren't simple but more complex with deep thoughts built into them. You couldn't just read it once and be done. You have to read it again, maybe even a couple times, to really grasp a full understanding of what she is trying to say through her poem. She writes a lot about religion, which is not something that I read a lot about, especially in poetry.  "Knocking or nailing?—a crucifix at the door, or hammer from the flat below?" from her poem Rome Visits When I’m in the Bath. Her poems leave me with many questions because she doesn't just come out and say what her poem means. She leaves it up to the reader to uncover to message weaved in the words of her poems. In her poem Covet she sends the message of how a person shouldn't get something by wrongful means or hurting others... " Thou shalt entertain no note without instruments, sloth without toil – sweat from strong languor. Thou shalt not stroke wood of others’ baseboards, nor bewail banisters to a barren house." Another reason Susan's poems are different is because she uses words from other languages in her poems. In her poem Pecan, Rodef, Clam she uses Hebrew and Yiddish words. "Like any nut zipped up tight in its shell. Like a clam’s clipped momser, the locked maw talked open by fire..." the word momser is Yiddish. I think using these words in the poem gives the author a different voice. Susan also has a unique style to her poems. She breaks up her stanzas in the middle of the sentences which makes the poem read differently. She does this in her poem Deconstruction Workers
"Green’s the grace

most of us would like. To miss
you netted by needles
is to have the foresight
of a wood pest, eating
what builders won’t abate —

blind." I think she wants to put emphasis on certain words and create a pause to add dramatic effect.


Questions: What do you think makes a poem powerful?
What makes poetry different from other types of writing?

How does Outliers connect to MY life?

We all like reading fiction books and fantasy with exotic characters and extreme plots, but reading a non-fiction book like Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell really enables you to be able to make connections. It’s interesting to read his arguments and the points he makes and apply them to the world around me. I can also relate Malcolm Gladwell’s topics to my own life and experiences and it makes reading the book that much more enjoyable.

 I can agree with Malcolm Gladwell's concept of 10,000 hours. I think that people, who find something that they love doing, and are willing to do for 10,000 hours, are lucky. Having a passion like that is exactly what can lead to success. I have a passion for soccer but I know that I probably won’t be able to reach 10,000 hours by the time my career is over. I have been playing soccer since I was 5 and each year becomes a little more intense. More practices, more games, more tournaments, all increasing the amount of time I am playing soccer. Let’s say as an estimate that I play an average of 5 hours of soccer a week for 10 months out of the year. That’s 200 hours a year. If I started at age 5 and end at age 22 then I will have played about 3,400 hours of soccer. Not even close to 10,000.  To become a professional soccer player is extremely hard work and dedication. I know how hard it is to get there and 10,000 hours of soccer is a lot of soccer. Professionals have those hours. They are the people who sleep with a soccer ball under their pillow, who play day and night, always outside practicing when they aren't with their team and are playing soccer 7 days a week. These are the players that succeed, the players that make it to the professionals. Malcolm is exactly right when he says that the people who work hard to get to 10,000 hours are the people that become exceptional. “And what’s more, the people at the very top don’t work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.” (39) They become the outliers. Not simply by ability. If soccer players could make it to the professionals just by pure talent then a lot of people could get there easily. But no, they make it by hard work for 10,000 hours. “Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.” (42)

Another good point Malcolm Gladwell makes is how during the summer kids who come from poorer families are at a disadvantage. During summer their parents don’t have the money to send them off to summer camps or buy them books to read or keep them engaged in some sort of educational work. I come from a family where I have access to these types of activities during summer. I stay active by going to soccer camps, my parents make sure I read plenty of books throughout the entire vacation, my grandmother takes me to museums and plays, and if we go on vacations we visit historical sites. So during summer I’m still very well engaged in reading and learning. Kids who aren’t as lucky don’t go to summer camps and don’t have parents who can buy them new books to read. “The poorest kids come back from the holidays and their reading scores have dropped almost 4 points.  Poor kids may out-learn rich kids but during the school year. But during the summer, they fall far behind.” (258) They are at a huge disadvantage by the time September rolls around and we’re all back at school. When I come back I have read at least 10 books and someone else who isn’t very wealthy might’ve not even touched a book since June! “When it comes to reading skills, poor kids learn nothing when school is not in session.” (258)  I can clearly agree with Gladwell’s argument because I can tell how I would have an advantage over other students.

The last point he makes, that I can really apply my life to, is the Power Distance Index. Everyday I can see how this affects people because it occurs in my school. I can tell there is a huge difference between the people who are considered “popular” and people who aren’t considered popular. I’m in the class advisory and I know that someone who didn’t consider them self to be popular wouldn’t run for class president. Kids who know they are liked by much of the student body will run for president because they know that other people will vote for them. Students who know they aren’t as popular won’t try to fit in with popular people. They will do things like sit in the front of the bus and let the “cool kids” sit in the back. A lot of popular people tend to sit in the new cafeteria. The “un-cool kids” know this so most of them tend to sit in the large cafeteria. (This isn’t exactly true but for the most part this is how it goes.) The less popular kids wouldn’t dare try and take a table from the popular kids; it just doesn’t work like that. It isn’t that popular kids are mean or make fun of the less popular kids. Everyone goes about minding their own business and hangs out in their own groups but it is apparent that, for the most part, the kids considered unpopular or un-cool respect the popular people. This is very similar to how Malcolm Gladwell explains Power Distance Index. “Power distance is concerned with attitudes toward hierarchy, specifically with how much a particular culture values and respects authority.” (204-205) The reason the less popular kids respect the popular people is because they want to be like them or at least be as liked by their peers as the popular people are.

It is clear that there are many concepts in Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers that can be applied to my life. He creates a story that is engaging because there are many points he makes that I would’ve never even considered. After reading the book I realize how accurate his arguments are and how closely they relate to my everyday life. The book goes much deeper than just a simple answer but he found facts and evidence to support his conclusions which he researched thoroughly. Malcolm Gladwell’s story of Outliers is an exceptional piece on non-fiction that, not just me, but anyone can connect to.

Ugly Poetry Prompt

Hatred

One of the most ugly things a person can hold.
A grudge,
unforgiveness.
Not letting go of the past
will get you no where in the future.
Hatred, such an ugly word.
Disgust,
envy,
loathe,
anger,
violence all just as ugly.
There is no beauty found in hatred,
not hiding behind the shadows
or lurking in any corners.
It is simply lost.
Lost behind the walls built up
of hatred.
For beauty to poke its way through
we need to tear down these giant walls
of ugly hatred.