Personal Narrative: My Writing As An Art Form

My writing experience started in high school. I was part of the high school yearbook. I was business editor as a freshman up to being the editor my senior year. I also participated on the newspaper staff. I had some experience in college, but I did not finish college. I then did not have any more experience until I started work as a leader at Nisco. I finally started college classes again.

When it comes to my current writing process, I would admit that I am a bit old-fashioned. I have found that I have a harder time focusing--especially on writing--when I am at a computer. So I prefer to write out my first draft on paper and then eventually transfer it to the computer. I believe that most of my failed writing endeavors have resulted from my use of word-processing programs. Word-processing programs identify mistakes you have made as soon as you have made them, and I have a tendency to stop writing in order to correct those mistakes as soon as they happen. This results in me losing my focus on what I wanted to write about, and ultimately dissuades me from wanting to write more.

I learned a few interesting reasons regarding my overall feelings for writing. Up until now, I never examined why I disliked writing. Looking back at my past experiences with writing I now have a better understanding on what was holding me back. Self-confidence certainly played a large factor in my avoidance of writing. After writing the essay on my relationship with writing, I can use what I have learned from that exercise and apply it to my future writing adventures. I need to be more self-confident, and not worry about any judgments. I need to realize that I am able to express my thoughts through writing. This exercise gave me a very good perspective on my avoidance of writing and will help propel me to write more in the future.

With the given introduction assignment, it has brought to my attention my love hate relationship with writing. I find that in the past, writing has made me feel vulnerable in a way that not much else has. The idea that anyone could read the words I had carefully placed for a grade or judgment quite honestly scares me. Granted it depends on the circumstance surrounding the said writing, for example, in my junior year AP Language class every friday we were given 20 minutes out of class to write or draw anything we desired. This free writing period would soon become the highlight of my week. I had developed a system to get my thoughts onto paper without anyone being able to stumble upon them by accident or by a snooping younger sibling. My method

Distant, cold, and non-existent describes my relationship with writing. My relationship with writing has never been a close relationship. Writing has always been difficult for me. I have never hated writing, but it has been a constant challenge for me. I will be discussing my fears of writing, the value of being able to express your ideas through writing, and what excites me about writing more and more.

My writing experiences have been minimal. So far I have only learned the basics of writing, like forming sentences and forming sentences to put into paragraphs. I can tell that my writing has improved throughout the years. I hope to improve in writing essays, paragraphs, stories, and speeches so that I have no errors with editing and creating the final product. I predict that I will be a well rounded writer when I graduate from Newman University.

Becoming an excellent writer takes plenty of practice and of course time, and dedication. As a writer myself I have many flaws that I need to work on in order to become successful in my freshman composition class. However I also have a few strengths that I believe will benefit me in class. In High school I had a difficult time in most of my english classes therefore I know it will be a struggle when entering Cal State La although I will perceiver it wont be easy. I will dedicate a lot of my time into my freshman composition class because it will be a class that I will have my hardest time in. Although it may be difficult, being consistent and having a positive mindset will push me through what i believe will be the class in which i struggle in throughout my university years.

When writing any document, the author must understand their audience before writing anything (Vandermey, 2012). Making sure my content has the attention of the reader is essential for any writer and understanding the process to write interesting material is the author’s goal (Emery, 2014). While all authors have fear and apprehensions about writing, their passion usually comes out on top when authoring a document or paper. My writing style creates fears, however, my passion to communicate properly with my audience drives my overall writing style.

When I transferred from UNCG I had overcome a very difficult emotional (what). I began to use my personal struggles to create these drawings of women who were dealing with internal struggles and whenever I drew I felt my mind release tension, a feeling of relaxation and freedom I could not get from anything else. Deciding to become an art therapist was one of the best decisions I have had. The idea of allowing all sorts of people with diverse backgrounds, emotional struggles or just pure imagination to express every bit of themselves in any medium gives me pure bliss. Intuitively I believe that everyone has a yearning to express how they feel and if I can help someone along their journey of self-discovery I'd be honored. I believe that God gave me the ability to use my hands to create transcendence in myself. Starting at a young age art was my backbone and strength, I was amazed daily with the pieces

The experience I had with writing that I found difficult may or may not be common for most people, but for me it was. Writing has never been my strongest area in school. I always wanted to be somewhat good at it though , so I tried and still do. People have their weaker subjects and some have their stronger ones. Friends and family members of mine love to write, and I always try to keep a journal or diary. I just always found it hard to write it on paper. I’ve had so much to say that I keep in my head or want to use for a topic for a paper to share with class but could never write it. Until one day I got a reality check from one of my writing professors. Last year I was given a writing assignment to write about an experience that changed my life. To me doing that was difficult because I had to relive my past and explain my emotions on a piece of paper; at the time that was hard for me. I was given this assignment twice. The first semester I dropped the course because I had mono and was missing class, and couldn't put the effort in. The professor understood and read my idea and said, “Next time you take this class, stick with that idea and write, don’t hold back.” Now this story isn’t about that professor, but rather about the next one I had. He told me the same thing as her and thats when I knew I had to come out of my shell and just WRITE.

My love for writing started when I was around ten years old. I was extremely shy growing up. I had friends but only a handful, I would rather be alone with a book or be working on a story. My writing was my escape from whatever was going on in my life whether it was my grandma being sick or getting in a fight with my older sister, all I needed was a notebook and a pen to write whatever I was feeling out. This lead to notebook upon notebook being filled with stories of the handsome prince saving the princess, or hopeful tales of a shy girl meeting her true love. I was in charge of my own little world and I could make anything and everything happen. As I grew older I kept writing, even though I had outgrown my shyness. I kept writing because

As a senior approaching graduation in less than a month, I have my life goals on my mind more often than my schoolwork nowadays. I spend hours asking myself the question “What am I going to do? I spend even more hours asking myself “How am I going to do it?”And the answer to these questions changes every day.

Everyone has their own style of writing. Many differ drastically, while others are extremely similar. Although my own writing could use numerous improvements, which I‘ve set as goals for this class, there are a few things that I’m partial to.

Although I’ve always seemed to enjoy writing, I never categorized myself as an outstanding writer. As I advanced through each grade is school, I noticed that while I had no problems with writing, other students seemed to despise it. The frustrating part about this was the fact that these students often obtained higher grades, even though they hated to write. This never discouraged me, however it did make me think about what it was that my writing lacked. Once I broke down my writing process, I realized that my writing often lacked structure.

Revise: My feelings towards writing have always been negative. I find writing to be very tedious and chose not to write unless it is required. I’m definitely not much a writer so the process I use for writing is very simple. First I start off by making a brainstorm on a piece of scratch paper ,usually they start with one big bubble then branch out. Next I bring together all of my ideas to make a rough draft that I write out. The first draft for me is just to throw all of my ideas onto paper into actual sentences. Last I just take my draft and type it up, and just fix my mistakes as I type.