LAMOTT, BIRDXBIRD
This reading was all dedicated to the writing process, how it should begin and end, and that no matter how good you are at writing you will always start a little "shitty". First you have the "down draft". Get something down, anything. Ideas are likely to spawn from this "vomiting" of words onto the page. LaMott uses her "School Lunches" anecdote to show that you can be writing about one thing (like what your school lunch said about you and your family as a child) and get a completely different theme or idea out of the experience (like the boy against the fence that you were never to make eye contact with). After you have your "down draft", you find your new theme or direction and turn it into an "updraft", which is just a slightly better writing after you "fix it up". After you have done all your necessary repairs to the down draft, making it your up draft, you then create a "dental draft". In this process, you take your updraft. This step is completed when you "check every tooth, to see if it's loose or scraped or decayed," or even perfectly fine. This is also known as tweaking, and is essential to take your paper from good to great.
LaMott uses hilarious metaphors, like treating the down draft as a baby, and humorous anecdotes like her "school lunches". Not to mention the way she described the boy against the fence as a Polaroid that slowly developed into the character she wanted to include in her novel. The whole developing Polaroid metaphor makes me feel like I understand more of how the writing process works in the head of a brilliant writer. It starts as a white bleached out picture, and slowly develops into a moment or story perfectly captured in time.
One particular passage in this book really describes what it feels like to most of us when we just don't know what we want to write about. It's sort of as if you feel like you're at the end of the writing tunnel, and the only two options are to shape up or ship out. In the words of the author, "One writer I know tells me that he sits down every morning and says to himself nicely, 'It's not like you don't have a choice, because you do- you can either type or kill yourself.'" A humorous take on the frustration of writers block. She goes on to say "We all often feel like we are pulling teeth," which couldn't be more true, for me at least. It feels like I am constantly at war with my mind to just think of something good so I can be done.
Discussion question: If you could create, or describe the Polaroid that represents your life, what would be in it? What images would appear in what order and what would they mean? Also, what would the final picture look like?
LaMott uses hilarious metaphors, like treating the down draft as a baby, and humorous anecdotes like her "school lunches". Not to mention the way she described the boy against the fence as a Polaroid that slowly developed into the character she wanted to include in her novel. The whole developing Polaroid metaphor makes me feel like I understand more of how the writing process works in the head of a brilliant writer. It starts as a white bleached out picture, and slowly develops into a moment or story perfectly captured in time.
One particular passage in this book really describes what it feels like to most of us when we just don't know what we want to write about. It's sort of as if you feel like you're at the end of the writing tunnel, and the only two options are to shape up or ship out. In the words of the author, "One writer I know tells me that he sits down every morning and says to himself nicely, 'It's not like you don't have a choice, because you do- you can either type or kill yourself.'" A humorous take on the frustration of writers block. She goes on to say "We all often feel like we are pulling teeth," which couldn't be more true, for me at least. It feels like I am constantly at war with my mind to just think of something good so I can be done.
Discussion question: If you could create, or describe the Polaroid that represents your life, what would be in it? What images would appear in what order and what would they mean? Also, what would the final picture look like?
posted by Lesley at 6:09 PM
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