Day 2 Blog: Limiting Self-Criticism and Writing Poorly

Limit Self-Criticism in Early Drafts

The author describes two schools of thoughts on writing: structured and building a craft or Anne Lamott’s suggestion of writing whatever comes to mind and as my colleague would say “throwing it all up.” The main topic of this piece is to ensure the silence of the internal critic. The author states the “watcher at the gate” limits creativity and provides distractions with other life duties. In order to overcome this “watcher” there are strategies such as “deadlines, writing fast, writing when you are tired, writing on cheap paper, and writing in surprising forms from which no expects excellence.”

The Right to Write Badly by Bruce Ballenger

Taking risks is one of the most difficult things we can do as human beings. Out natural inclination is to play it safe. Don’t raise your hand and speak up in front of the group for fear of sounding dumb. Don’t take a new job in a different field, stay in the comfortable job you are indifferent about because it’s secure. We lean toward safe nearly every time, unless we truly desire a different outcome. This applies to writing. Ray Bradbury is quoted, “You’ve got to be able to look at your thoughts on paper and discover what a fool you were.” I think he meant at a distant time in the future. Or maybe I’m missing the quote completely. Bruce illustrates a similar point concisely with the man going through the maze and putting together a map in his mind, or a “doctor using every diagnosis to refine her skills.”

When I was a student I could definitely write to the audience. I was able to adeptly find out what the teacher/professor wanted to hear and tailor my writing for the grade. I did this for years and years – to borrow from my colleague again “I could write a mean academic paper.” I never had a problem writing, but when it comes to freeform writing I struggle without structure, purpose, or direction or an end goal. The illustration of the spider spinning a web and relating it to the “initial line being fragile” was somewhat eye-opening. It was an interesting exercise of seeing how differently people could write about the same topic and take it different places and yet both still be “correct” pieces of writing or answers. Bruce eventually moves his thesis to the end of his piece because “writing is thinking, and we work toward meaning.” I also would have never thought to turn that information/persuasive piece into a poem from the cat’s perspective. That’s not just a hop, but also a skip and a jump.

Regarding a student writing a good first draft: Bruce states, “Respond without irony but with sincere anticipation, “Tell me what you feel especially good about. What really worked for you in this piece.”

Writing: just do it – Nike. Write everyday – keeps it fresh. Although “smooch of death” could have been edited on the spot in my opinion. Just because “kiss of death” is unoriginal doesn’t mean he should change it for the sake of changing it – he didn’t make it better in my opinion.

Reading the story of the student of the 4H – although I understand the point being made about voice and story-telling over grammatical writing for standardized tests, etc – this story made him choke up? It was so abrupt that I had no time to feel anything. It was more shock than anything.

Golden Lines:

We assume we know what is going on inside of our own heads until we are challenged to put it on paper.

Isn’t this the truth? You don’t really know something until you try to teach it to someone else. If you are unable to explain it clearly you have not mastered it yet. However – with writing we don’t have to worry about mastering it because it is a perpetual process. There is no final draft.

When we read, we take in information. When we write, we refine it.

I think Brett may have mentioned this in the research portion – he will paraphrase the quotes picked out of his research and then work it later into his paper revising several times I’m assuming.

The Importance of Writing Badly

Honestly, to me this shows the diversity in learning and teaching styles. He spoke from his heart that he remained voiceless because of the dreaded red pen. While he mentioned others, who flourished from the red pen demanding the music of a perfectly crafted sentence. Who knows, maybe without that red pen, the other students might have not taken to writing as beautiful music. The ability to adapt your teaching to multiple modalities is incredibly important so your reach as a teacher is broad. I don’t like the red pen, but I empathize with those who feel they need the structure. I rarely ever police student’s paper for grammar (unless it muddles their message) for I am attempting to understand their thinking.