"Writing Down the Bones"~Goldberg

Goldberg, the author of “Writing Down The Bones" has provided several helpful suggestions to her readers. After reading her material, I found several of her sentences interesting and helpful to my own writing and thoughts on creative writing. However, for the sake of time I have only chosen three.

Writing Marathons: "We are not used to being so open. It's fine, accept it; it is a good state to be in." p 153

Claim Your Writing: "We are good, and when our work is good, it is good. We should acknowledge it and stand behind it." p. 156

Trust Yourself: "Something good will come out. Have patience" p 158

These three most relate to who I am, and how I function not only as a write but also as a person. First, I think at almost every point in time in our lives, we choose not to be open about our lives and in this case our writing. This is true for me. I like to keep my personal life personal and the same with my writing. However, occasionally crossing that comfort line is exciting. It sparks my imagination and helps me understand where I may be struggling.

The next phrase about acknowledging our work being good is meaningful. My Dad always told my brothers and me that if we knew we were right, then to stand behind ourselves and refuse to back down. If you know your work is good, then do not let others tell you differently. Listen to their criticism, but if you know it cannot get any better than stand behind yourself.

Finally, trusting yourself is an important quality to have. There have been times where I doubted myself but in the end, it ended up working out. If I just had the patience and strength to trust my work, and myself I would have been much better off. Learning how to trust yourself and your work is a crucial characteristic to master. In the beginning of this semester, I had little faith/trust in my work. Now at the end, I have grown more open, gained respect for my work and acknowledged that I can produce something decent.  As a result, my writings have become more creative and others seem to enjoy them more.

Fluorescence

I think many of us forget how great our lives really are. Sometimes it feels like the world is never enough. No matter how much positive surrounds us, we always managed to find the worst. Why is this? Do we seek attention? Did we never feel loved as a child? I see this in people every day. They spend so much time making things a struggle and wanting perfection.

Perfection. This word is almost evil. As a teenager, I remember wanting the perfect hair, skin and makeup. Now, I cannot help but laugh at those silly naive thoughts. Nothing in this world is perfect. On page 38, of Fluorescence, written by Jennifer Dick, she does a wonderful job describing the little things in life that we always torture ourselves with on a daily basis. For example "because your nose is too long, hips too large, eyes the wrong color...." This is very true. All of us are guilty of wanting to alter the features of our bodies.

I love every line in this poem. Each line made me laugh because it is so true of our lives. Why do we torture ourselves? Instead of being negative about a parking ticket, why is it that we cannot just shrug it off and laugh? I think the answer to all of these questions is that we are human. We desire the things we cannot have and we want whatever the person next to us has. For some reason, we think the grass is greener on the other side, when in fact it is just as green where we are standing. What I take away from this poem is that we need to enjoy and be thankful for what we have.

My life through "Bird by Bird"

“Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott has provided me with “some instruction on writing and life” (cover of book).  I say this because Lamott tries to enlighten her readers with life lessons while teaching them how to write as well. In a way, it reminded me of how to be a patient listener. It slowed me down to look at one individual person and to get to know them. I find that you can learn a lot about people and society this way.  Lamott even did this when she was developing her character. She sat down at a community home and really focused on the one older woman. Lucky for me, I experience this every day at work. I get to know my usual customers. Their weaknesses, worries, children, how they like their lottery played, and which newspaper they fancy allows me to learn more and more about them each time they come in. I think if I write another short story it will be based off one of my usual customers.

The next piece of information that really stuck with me was how your plot develops like a Polaroid. I think this describes life. We need to slow down and watch each piece unravel. By each piece, I mean each stage of life the good, bad and the ugly. Instead of throwing those feelings to the side, we need to embrace them and see where they take us. In my stories, I attempt to let the plot and stories unravel themselves to my readers. Slowly like a Polaroid, more and more pieces of the story come together. Finally, at the end, the Polaroid is whole and the story is over. Similarly, when one Polaroid develops, another one is right behind it, ready to be taken and transformed.

"The Falling Girl"

"The Falling Girl" by Dino Buzzati has an underlying meaning that I cannot seem to comprehend. To me this story seems to be about how fast life flies by. In the beginning, the girl was only nineteen and many people thought she was rather pretty. At the end of the story, the last two characters found her to be old and ugly. It seems that each story of the building represents a different age in the girls life. The top of the building represents her youth, and as she progresses towards the ground, slowly she is aging. Finally, upon reaching the ground, it signifies her death.

The setting of this story is rather interesting. Instead of walking us through the characters life through ordinary means, the author describes it through the sequences of events after the main character jumps off a building. This building, judging from the title, is located somewhere in Italy. The floor levels, stand as a symbolic or  underlying meaning which I can only think as years. In addition, we have a sense of the height of the building which has 150 floors (pg. 34). Finally, with each level, the reader is able to gain a sense of other settings or plots occurring in the various levels. Such as the parties, the man drinking his coffee etc. What these individuals stand for, I am not sure. The description of the area surrounding the building allows the reader to visualize a large city. To me, I see this plot/setting in New York City.

I chose this story because it is rather interesting. At first, I thought it was a suicide story. Part of me still thinks it is in some way, but I am not sure exactly. This story seems to have many underlining messages that are unclear to me.