What I want to get out of writing

I have really enjoyed taking this class. I think that I have learned a lot about my writing. This is the first writing class I have taken besides composition classes and I have learned a lot. I am going to continue writing and have gotten a lot out of takeing this class. In the future I am definatly going to keep a journal. It would be nice to have something published evenutally, but for now I am just going to write drafts in a journal. At one point when I have found something that I want to share I am going to make a personal essay out of it and submit it to be published. This class was so helpful because I was able to learn about different types of writing and different genres. I think it was a big help that we had to publish something in the end because it gave me confidence to actaully try to get something published for the first time. One major part of this class that I am gong to take with me is my draft writing skills. I found that I write better by discussing my ideas with someone else. Getting my ideas into words spoken out loud allowed me to hear what I was writing about or thinking about writing about, and then I was able to generat new idea. I am definalty going to keep on writing, hopefully to get something published some time in the future.

reflective essay

Coming up with a topic for writing my memoir was not hard. I think I had so many options to write about, I just had to pick the one I wanted to share. I started out deciding what I was going to write about by jotting down a few topics that I thought would make a good memoir. Out of about five topics that I had written down, I finally decided to write about my trip to Costa Rica. I felt like I had a lot to say about my vacation, but I didn’t just want to write a general paper about my entire vacation. After reading the story by Beard, I thought that I wanted to write about an event that happened in my life that would be interesting to the reader, and have an unexpected ending. This is when I decided to write about the story about surfing and the shark.
When I first started writing my paper I wanted to write a section leading up to how I got to Costa Rica. I wrote about how it was my boyfriend Chris that had asked me to go, and that we went with his brother and sister in law. I did this so I could give a little introduction, and not just start out in Costa Rica. I wanted to write about how
Chris had been getting me to try so many new things since I met him, and surfing was one of them. All this was what all lead up to the event that I wrote about.
Writing about the shark was the hardest part. I clearly remember what happened because it was a crazy thing for me to go through. However, it was difficult to organize all of the feelings and events that I felt in order to put them into words. In order to organize what happened I thought step my step the events that occurred, starting with paddling out into the water, and talking about how this was my very first experience surfing. I wanted to convey how scared I was, and why. One of my main ideas in the beginning was how scary the ocean was to me.
Finally, I got into the real story that I was telling. I wrote about how Chris was helping me surf, and how it was hard to catch waves. Then I got to the part where Chris asks me if he can get on the board with me, and the part when I start to think that he saw a shark. This is where I had to try to write all the terrified feelings that I felt, and put them into words so that readers could understand. The best that I could I wrote exactly what I was thinking.

However, it was the meeting with Dr. Chandler that actually lead me to my real story. I went into her office to revise a different essay. Since we weren’t going to be revising this essay, we were going to just talk briefly about this essay. Instead, we would up talking about this one the entire time, and not the one that we were origionally going to talk about. Dr. Chandler found that I was essentially writing about fears that are not actually there. The whole time in the conference we talked about how people for some reason are so afraid of something that is just not there, and how the fact that something is unseen can make it even more frightening. The whole time we would come up with things that people are afraid of even though they aren’t there, and different situations that these things could happen in.
Now, instead of writing an essay about my vacation my main point being about something that happened to me in Costa Rica, the main point of my essay was about unseen fears. I thought that this topic was a lot more interesting because it is something that people can relate to and even have experienced, even if they don’t know it.
I revised my essay by writing about certain situations that people are afraid of, even thought there is nothing there, such as in movies or books. There is also always the fact of how when something is being anticipated, people tend to think of the worst that can happen. Maybe this is because they want to be relieved when everything is ok, or maybe they just don’t want to be so upset when something actually does happen. I think that this was a good topic to write about because it is interesting and relevant to so many people.



I wanted my main point of the essay to be that when I write I need to look past the superficial aspect of the story and go and find a deeper meaning to my writing. For example my first draft of my memoir was about my costa rica trip and surfing. My final essay was about being afraid in general, with the shark experiance as an example of this. Is the point I am tyring to make obvious?

writing about writing my essay

I want to write about how I went about revising my memoir. I want to write about writing this essay because I think it is the most interesting out of all of my writing.

I picked this piece becuase it was the first time I thought that I didn't write about something superficial or obvious. Ater I had my conference with Dr. Chandler I decided to revise my memoir over my personal essay. Both of the pieces were about things that I had experianced, but after our conference Dr. Chandler helped me to find something in my writing that I didn't see right away.

The main point of my last essay is going to be about how I was able to, with help, find something in my first draft to take out and concentrate on rather then just write about the entire idea. For example, instead of just writing about my entire trip to Costa Rica, I revised my memoir into writing about hidden fear that people have for no reason. I think this is interesting because you wouldn't think I would take that perspective from the beginning of my essay and I think it would keep people reading the entire thing.

My organizing process is going to be to start off explaining how I came about coming up with the topic for my essay. Then I am going to write about how I went through the process of writing the events of the trip. The main point of my essay is going to be about my conference with Dr. Chandler because that is when we had our discussion about what my essay was actually about and where I came up with most of the ideas for my essay.

revising essays

The relationship to my material effected the composing process because when we were given a topic I would write about something that I knew about. Writing about something that I have first hand experiance about I felt confident in my writing. I feel that since I had personal experiance that the composing process was a little easier then if I was writing about something completely new to me. I was also able to make more catagories during my composign process, leading to more detail.

After writing the first draft, when I got my essays back, is when I would do more research. I would take the comments and change my essay according to what the comments said. At this point, instead of just writing what I knew about my topic I would research specific details and add that to my essay.

composing essays

As we were different essays to write about, I was able to compose my essays by taking several steps. First I would write down different topics that I would consider writing about. For example, for the personal essay wrote out ideas that I would like to share about my life through writing. Some of my possible topics were growing up living with my grandparents, my parents divorce and how it seperately effected me and each of my sisters, playing softball every summer until I was sixteen, and my sister's wedding. After I wrote all of my possible topics down I took the ones out that I thought I remembered the most about and would be able to convey through writing. I took those few choices and wrote down main topics that I would want to include in my essay. After that I just picked the topic that I wanted to write about the most.

I was able to choose my focus for my essays by thinking about what I wanted the reader to get out of my writing. After I decided what I wanted to outcome of my piece to be, I would just write the events that happened. When I wrote my personal essay I wanted people to understand the fact that I had so much fun growing up with my sisters, and that I missed those times. Every other section in my essay was about my sisters wedding, and then about growing up with my sisters. My overall feeling of the essay was for readers to understand that I am happy that things have turned out so well, but I also miss the old times. I was glad that I got the chance to write about this topic because I did have personal journal entries about my sisters wedding, and this was a way for me to expalin my feelings to other people. I wanted everyone who experianced the child's or siblings wedding to be able to relate to my feelings.

nature essay

One night when I was at work with my boyfriend Chris, he and his friend Scott decided that it would be a lot of fun to go camping that very night. I am usually up for new things so of course I said that I would go. I had never been camping before and was not expecting the experience that I got. Chris always told me about this place called Long Eddy in New York where he would always go camping with his friends when they were growing up. Whenever he would talk to me about it I would always picture him and his friends around a campfire doing “camping” things. I can’t even explain what “camping” things are, maybe cooking food over a big fire or maybe telling scary stores. I just thought of a bunch of old friends having a great time. When Chris told me that he wanted to go to Long Eddy with him, I was excited that he wanted me to see that place where he had so much fun with his close friends growing up.
We left as soon as we could and the drive up there was exciting and scary to me. The closer we got to Long Eddy, the further away we seemed to get from the living that I was used to. The roads were getting darker and the streetlights seemed to be getting farther apart by the minute. The only real lights were the headlights of our car. It took us about four hours to get there because we got a little lost on the way. When we got there it was like nothing I had pictured.

When we first got to Long Eddy it was just me, Chris and our one hundred and twenty pound Alaskan Malamute Nekinya. Scott and his friend had not gotten there yet. It was about twelve o’clock midnight when we got there and it was pitch black. I was used to the lights of the city and suburbs always being on no matter where you are. Where I live in New Jersey it is not pitch black. Because of streetlights, stores, buildings, and signs there is always lights on. The main difference here is the fact that you can actually see the stars in the sky. It was so beautiful to look at up so many stars where at my house you can’t see half of the stars that you can see at Long Eddy because of all the light pollution. Although all the beautiful stars were a captivating sight, the fact that it was pitch black and I was in an unknown place was making me uneasy. Even Nekinya was more comfortable then I was, after all he had been there so many times with Chris. I was afraid because I could not see anything and I had no idea where I was. I wouldn’t let the dog’s leash go because I knew that I would be safe with him. I could hear the water, but I did not really know how close it actually was. Nekinya was excited to hear the water and couldn’t’ wait to go swimming. It was up to Chris to start us a fire so we could see and get warm. The air was a little damp because it must have rained some time that day so starting a fire was no easy task. Eventually Chris did get the fire started, and I was able to see a little bit of the beauty that I was about to discover in the morning. All night around the fire Chris would tell me how beautiful the area was, and how amazed I would be when I woke up that morning. Eventually our friends got there, we had a few drinks and all went to bed.
That next morning I work up to the light of the sun. Nothing beats that, especially waking up to an annoying alarm clock and having to get up suddenly to go to work or school. This time it was the natural light of the sun that slowing woke me up. It was weird waking up in a tent outside where it was a little muggy from the morning dew. It felt a little gross to wake up that way but I was still extremely excited to see what Long Eddy looked like during the day. When I left the tent the first thing I saw that was so beautiful was the Delaware River. It was also soothing to go to sleep to the sound of the running water. The water was so clean, and I really like to go swimming so I was extra excited. The other most amazing thing about Long Eddy was all of the trees. You look across the river and you see endless trees. I wouldn’t help but think about what animals lived over there. That was a little scary to, but the beauty outweighed the scary aspect of it.
Something that I think is so interesting about camping is the fact that in order to get clean you have to go into the river to wash. We would bring soap and even shampoo and bathe in our bathing suits in the water. This was weird for me because I had never done it before and it was awkward trying to get clean while standing on the bottom of a river. I of course wore shoes but it was a weird concept.
Watching Nekinya in Long Eddy was an experience in itself. After all, a dog’s natural habitat is outside. It was interesting watching Nekinya go swimming in the water with out fear of anything. One other time when we went camping we were able to take a boat out into the Delaware, and Nekinya would walk around in the shallow parts of the water and howl like a wolf. This was such an experience because Malamutes don’t bark and barely make any noise. This is the only place that we would hear Nekinya make a sound. For some reason he must have felt something to make him howl like that. We were also a little bit concerned because we thought that he would attract some animals, but he never did.
If there was one thing that I didn’t like about camping was the bugs. I know bugs are a part of nature and they will always be outside, but they were not my favorite part of the experience.

I absolutely love camping now. Since my first experience camping I have been about twelve times. I like being outside and breathing fresh air and looking at the starts at night. After my first experience camping am not afraid because I know where I am. When I am in Long Eddy it is like leaving the real world for a little while and spending some much needed time with friends. Here I don’t have to worry about doing schoolwork, or paying bills. I leave all of my worries and problems home and come to Long Eddy where during the day I can lay out in the sun and read a book and at night I can sit and talk around a campfire with good friends while listening to the Delaware River go by. I will never forget my first experience camping, and I am looking forward to future camping trips!

publication venue

I had a hard time finding somewhere to publish one of my essays. At first I wasn't even sure which essay I wanted to submit. At first I thought I would go with the nature essay becasue I couldn't think of anywhere to submit my other essays. Then I thought I would submit my first personal essay about my sisters wedding to a teen magazine, because I thought it sounded like what you would read in something like Cosmo. Then I found out that it's hard to get excepted into magazines like those because I have never published before.

I finally decided to just look through the Writers Market book and find something that I though I could write a piece for. I was looking at womens magazines and didn't find anything. I eventually stumbled upon a magazine called Plus Attitude magazine where they accept pieces writen about posative uplifting experiances. This is where I thought that I would write a nature piece about my experiances surfing. I wanted to write my nature piece on it because sometimes its not about catchig a wave, but about being out there and just sitting on the board. Especially when I really can't surf all that well, its more about the experiance. I guess we will see how it all goes from here!!