Reflection

Reflection
by
Cathy Alden

This summer during the Upstate Writing Project Summer Institute (2007) I learned something about myself I didn’t realize before now. I like to write, but it’s the revising part I love to do best. I wrote three pieces that I thought worthy of placing on my blog for others to read. All of the revisions I did for my pieces are highlighted in yellow and linked to the NWP or Docs and Spreadsheets.
The first two pieces were poems. I don’t particularly enjoy writing poetry, but this time it wasn’t so hard. The main idea of my first poem “The Colors of My Canvas” was to paint a picture with words and make it look like an actual painting I would paint. The rough draft of my second poem was written at the Carl Sandburg National Historic Site. We sat outside along a rushing creek and were told to write about what we saw and heard, so that’s the main idea – I wrote about what I saw and heard in the park. My next piece was written long ago. I wrote it in 1994 during a creative writing class in college, and the main idea was killing my husband. (Gruesome, isn’t it!) After being graded, I put it away never to be seen again. It was this class and the realization that I enjoyed revising that I finally took it out and, carefully, hopefully, worked wonders. It is titled “The Scream,” and I wrote it shortly after my divorce. Writing it did wonders for my self-esteem, and although, I would never do something like I did in the story, it felt good to get it down on paper.
While writing these first drafts, the writing work, I did what Ron Rash told us writers needed to do – just get your ideas down on paper. Getting down the ideas is the hard part. Once they are there, the fun comes in. This is the thinking work. During revision, a piece of writing can go where you never expected it to go and that is exciting. It was during all the revisions that I had to think about what I was doing. Did I use the right word? Should a simile or a metaphor go here? What about onomatopoeia or personification? Should I use any of them in this particular piece of writing? It is hard work! It is fun work!
Some of the crafting techniques I used to help me write were using
colors in writing. This is where I got my idea for my first poem. Thinking about colors helped me to spruce up my poetry. Since I love color, this was an easy technique and I used it in my poem “The Colors of My Canvas.”
One of the best techniques for me to get ideas was showing the different pictures on the screen. I used the picture about the wagon and little boys to start a story, and realized it would be a great opening for a sequel to another story I wrote (not on the blog). I will use this opening. Many of the demonstrations were on using adjectives and using them well. It was these strategies that helped me most to revise my writing.
The first poem I wrote was from a demonstration by Kris Turner, one of our illustrious and wonderful leaders. She talked about color and how we can use it in our writing. I decided to try my hand at poetry one more time. I wrote a poem called “The Color of My Canvas.” I love painting pictures on canvas, and I tried to recreate a painting in words as if I were actually going to paint it. A writer from the NWP commented that his grandmother used to paint and my poem reminded him of his grandmother because of the colors on the canvas. In my rough draft one line of my poem talked about being in a meadow waiting for kids’ feet. I thought about this line and realized that there probably would not be children in a meadow at dawn, so I changed it to deer. This would be the time of morning that deer would venture into the meadow to nibble on grass. I changed that line. My rough draft did not have very many descriptive words so I added more adjectives. The final draft now looks more like the colors I would put on my canvas.
The Carl Sandburg NHS was a wonderful place to experience nature and to write. Sitting outside “right smack dab” in the middle of it really got the writing juices flowing. After getting the rough draft down on paper, I made several revisions. I had titled it (a temporary title) “Enjoying the Carl Sandburg National Historic Site,” and Brian Slusher remarked that my title was too cumbersome. I needed to change it. I did because it was. Laurie McCall told me I needed to use all of the five senses in the poem. I switched lines, thought about what I smelled, what I touched, what I tasted. I took her suggestion and used all five senses. Another student from the NWP wondered what I was going to write when he started reading about taste and was pleasantly surprised when I wrote about my lunch. I like this poem, and it struck me that it would make a good picture book. Eventually I will illustrate it and sent it in to be published.
After being filed away for years, I retrieved my short story entitled “The Scream.” I read it aloud to my writing group, and they thought it hilarious. Erika, however, was a little confused at the end. She asked, “Did he die?” I thought it was clear enough, but because of her comment, I decided to revise the ending just a bit. Hopefully, the ending is a little clearer. While reading this piece aloud, I realized that it was really dull and some of the passages did not reflect how I really felt at the time. Looking it over, I highlighted passages that needed changed and asked myself about my feelings when I wrote it. How could I show how I felt? What words would help the reader empathize with the character in the story? What were the right words? Ahhh . . . the thinking work! The fun work! It was a lot of fun revising this story, and carefully, hopefully I worked wonders with it.
Reading through my classmate’s writings, I learned a few things that I will remember always. Angie Neal wrote a piece about Disney World called "Disney Magic." She wrote it in such a way that I felt I was actually there. She effectively used descriptive words and strong verbs. Her writing literally jumped off the page at me. I learned that using sensory words and strong active words makes writing come alive.
Kristen Gault, writing her professional piece, was very stressed and worried that she would not get it “right.” She asked me to read it and give her some suggestions. I felt flattered that she asked me to do this, as my confidence at times is lacking. While reading her piece, her voice came through so strongly that I could almost hear her actually reading it to me. Kristen’s professional piece, I think, was very well written; she just needed a little confidence builder to get her on her way. I’m still not sure why she asked me for suggestions. I learned from Kristen’s writing that I need to have confidence in my writing just the way she does.
Jamie Lovello taught me that our lives are not as boring as we think they are; those little life episodes can make for some very interesting, exciting, funny, and touching stories. Jamie wrote a poignant story about how she met her husband. Throughout her writing, she asked herself a lot of questions. Questions about herself, questions about what she should do, and questions about what she needed. This questioning helped Jamie understand what she needed to do to get her through a rough period in her life. Through Jamie’s writing I learned we needed to ask questions if we are going to find out about ourselves. Jamie learned much about herself when she wrote this piece, and in doing so taught me to question myself when I write. I learned through reading my classmate’s writings that I need to use more of my voice in my writing, to have confidence when I write, and to use my writing to question myself. What better way can our writing reflect ourselves than by questioning. I also learned that I really, really love to revise my writing once I get it down on paper and that the first draft is the writing work and the thinking work is the fun part. I never would have learned any of this if I hadn’t have been a part of the Upstate Writing Project.