Response to Writers Workbench July 8, 2011

I finally made it through the entire Writers Workbench. I won't lie and say that I read every word on every page, but I did at least skim through all and did actually read a good portion of it. In some ways, it was like an entire English Lit class in 2 hours.I have always enjoyed reading, but one of the things I hated most about English Lit was breaking down the story into tiny little bits and analyzing everything. I just wanted to read the story! I remember in high school having my teacher fuss at me because I answered a question based on something I had read ahead on. We read books, but only so many pages at a time. That is what I truly did not like about the Writers Workbench, the way it broke everything down into little tiny bits. I do understand and appreciate the purpose behind it though. I did take notes along the way, jotting down things I thought would help me in my own writing. I would like to try writing a blog based on defamiliarization, just to see what it is like. That part sounded like fun. I also learned from the portions on understating the serious and exaggerating the less serious. This seems more to relate to news articles, but could apply to other writing as well. I may try looking in the phone book tomorrow to find interesting names. I have heard about writers doing that. There are also many towns throughout the US with interesting names that could become backdrops for stories. Writing cinematically; now there is something I think I can do. I like to use descriptive words so this is right up my alley. I also learned from writing a mission statement. My employer has a mission statement that we focus on frequently to remind us of why we are there. Perhaps that would help to direct my writing. I also do not procrastinate on writing, I just keep rehearsing it in my head until I am ready to commit it to writing, usually very near the deadline. I much prefer going over it internally to writing and rewriting draft after draft. I did enjoy Journalism classes I took  in high school, and wonder if that isn't more my writing style than say fiction writing. I probably would not have done the workshop had it not been an assignment, but I do try to take every opportunity to learn. I did like the way the author of the course used a variety of writing examples, both from the past and present day. I was able to relate more to the recent writings than to such works as "The Great Gatsby". I also figured out why I enjoy some books more than others. I have read several books, that when I got to the end, I said "that's it? Where is the rest of the story?" Writing really is a lot of work, but as he said, if you write a little every day you will have a book by the end of the year. I really liked the analogy of running a marathon by doing a half mile a day for 52 days.Even I can do that. Oh yeah, we are doing that by writing a journal a day for 3 weeks. I will attempt to use what I have learned in the workshop to improve my writing and to make intelligent comments on the writings of my fellow students as I continue to read blogs and essays. One last thing, and I mean no offense, but I am really glad that my major is nursing and not English! I'm sure that some of my fellow students are probably just as glad their major isn't nursing!