Blog #2 Emily Plower

“For me writing is like climbing a mountain when you are afraid of heights. “

“Writing is like an art form that everyone hopes to master.”

“To write something perfect is like writing directly from the heart. “

            Writing is scary. I never know where to exactly start or how to compose my thoughts and emotions. Although writing is a daunting task, I enjoy putting my thoughts down on paper. It provides a sense of relief and therapy. I have always had a journal growing up, it was never great literary works, but it served it purpose in letting my thoughts out. I have an incredible amount of envy for those writers that are good. I learned though what makes a writer “good” in Paule Marshall’s “The Poets in the Kitchen” is to write what you know and to write from real life.  Just as she draws from her experiences of watching the women in her community sit around the kitchen discussing the world. She takes away from those moments, a sense of personality, and style to the English language. Using real experiences from your own life and having that sense of raw emotions can make what you are writing, “beautiful” (as Grace Paley noted). As a writer my metaphors express my caution, yet want to be a good writer. As far as my history with writing goes I have always wrote, but not on the scale of real writers. My writings have always been in small tattered journals that I would receive as stocking stuffers on Christmas morning. The images in media that may have influenced my metaphors are in movies how they are often portrayed as these workaholics who spend day in and day out slaving on a typewriter by candlelight. This image that has been portrayed through the media has made me to believe that to be a true writer, one must devote their entire life. Which I realize is not the case necessarily. In Paule Marshall’s “The Poets in the Kitchen” he drew inspiration from what he called as the greatest poets, who were really just women in his community talking and discussing life. So this image I have portrayed in my mind is not near reality. Although when I read, Terry Tempest Williams’ “Why I Write” I felt as though this was the stereotypical “good writer”. What I mean when I say this is that Williams writes because he must. He has a driving force internally that pushes him to write. For him, writing seems essential to life and without writing he is not himself. I personally, cannot relate that strong of a relationship to writing, but I can appreciate that sense of drive he possesses.  Often times my writing in journals is very random and I hardly consider it writing, but more of a stream of conscious thoughts and feelings. I have always really related writing to different essays and assignments in classes, which have always seemed like that mountain to climb, when you’re afraid to even start. I hope one day to be a well-written individual and not to be intimidated by writing, but to just write from the heart and from experiences.