Ashley Meyn
Goodman
In this article, Allegra Goodman highlights the main issues
that we faces as writers and encourages us to knock down the barriers that we
have set for ourselves. I like what she says about facing our inner critic. As
she shared, we are often cautious when writing because of what a teacher may
have told us in the past that limits our abilities and scares us away from
going deeper into our writing. I experienced this my junior year of high
school. I had a teacher that felt the need to comment on just about everything
on our essays and pieces. The problem is, he focused on the negative and even
though I was proud of that piece, he would grade it very critically. He did not
focus on structure and if I answered the critical questions like I wish he
would have. This hurt my “writer esteem” and had a large effect on my
confidence in writing skills. Thankfully, the next year I had a fantastic
composition teacher that let us be creative and did not pick apart all of our
choices. This took a dramatic toll on my writing, and even though it was not my
favorite subject, I really did enjoy it.
I also enjoyed what Goodman said about getting inspiration.
Nobody becomes inspired sitting at a desk in a small room with white walls. You
have to go out and do what you love or just live life. There is a lot to be
written that is inspired by our day to day lives.
“Love your material. Nothing frightens the inner critic
more than the writer who loves her work.” (Goodman 309). I have never thought
about it like this, but I am certain that I am scared to be proud of my own
work. I put up walls so that when people criticize it, I will have “not liked
that piece anyways”. But we are all creative and have our own ideas, so there
is no reason to be ashamed by the work that we do. All in all, Goodman has
taught me to just write. Don’t worry about what others may think. Get to the
place you feel the most creative, and let your thoughts and characters come
alive.
Ashley, I enjoyed reading what you wrote here. You are courageous to talk about the way you truly feel about writing and the inner critic. From my experience, I would say that almost everyone experiences what you describe here, but not many talk about it. But there's no shame in talking about it, right? How is Goodman an expert on her subject? Hmmmm, I wonder!
ReplyDeleteI hope that in my class, you will come to be even a little bit comfortable being proud of your work--because as long as you put your heart and brain into your work, I will always be proud of it. I may have suggestions for ways you can make it even more powerful, but two things make that NOT criticism that burns: I am always and ever interested in helping you say what YOU want to say, and helping you create the image you see for the finished product. And two--I guess I was born with a special gift...I always see more good than bad, so I can't help but appreciate many things about what I see.
I think this semester is going to rock!