In class, we had to read three different articles on the daily routines of some of the most famous writers, pick our three favorite quotes from each article, and create three of our own. Putting this post together really gave me some insight on how to really get to the nitty gritty of writing a good piece.
Here I have included the articles we read:
I have put nine quotes from three different passages, while adding three of my own quotes. These nine quotes really stuck out to me because I feel like I really relate to the writers when they're explaining how they exactly do what they do to be so successful. Teach Writing as a Process Not Product By: Don Murray Quote 1: "He uses language to reveal the truth to himself so that he can tell it to others. It is an exciting, eventful, evolving process" - Murray 2 Quote 2: "How do you motivate your student to pass through this process, perhaps even pass through it again and again on the same piece of writing? First by shutting up." - Murray 3 Quote 3: "It is the responsibility of the student to explore his own world with his own language, to discover his own meaning" - Murray 4 Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life By: Annie Lamott Quote1: "First I try to breathe, because I'm either sitting there panting like a lapdog or I'm unintentionally making slow asthmatic death rattles. So I sit there for a minute, breathing slowly, quietly." - Lammot 3 Quote 2: "I also remember a story that I know I've told elsewhere but that over and over helps me to get a grip: thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird." - Lammot 4 Quote 3: "In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really shitty first drafts" - Lammot 6 The Daily Routines of Great Writers By: Maria Popova Quote 1: "If I don’t have the hour, and start the next day with just some bad pages and nowhere to go, I’m in low spirits. Another thing I need to do, when I’m near the end of the book, is sleep in the same room with it. That’s one reason I go home to Sacramento to finish things. Somehow the book doesn’t leave you when you’re asleep right next to it. In Sacramento nobody cares if I appear or not. I can just get up and start typing." - Joan Didion Quote 2: "I do pushups and sit-ups all the time, and feel as though I am getting lean and sinewy, but maybe not." - Kurt Vonnegut Quote 3: "I write in spurts. I write when I have to because the pressure builds up and I feel enough confidence that something has matured in my head and I can write it down." - Susan Sontag My three quotes: Quote 1: I find myself looking at my cat a lot of the time for inspiration, so if you have a pet, take a gander. You may come up with something. Quote 2: Take a short break and listen to your favorite music artist. I find that music can help get you started if you just can't think of a good topic. Quote 3: Do some jumping jacks, maybe a few yoga poses if you are feeling tired. Grab some water, get the blood flowing and the mind going.
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