Personal Narrative: My Writing

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MY WRITING
Well, where to begin except that, I am not much of a writer, but what really makes a good writer? Personally, I haven’t written a paper/essay in over 12 years which was back in high school. The only things I do write now are texts, emails, lists and notes to myself/ girlfriend. I have a substantial amount of things that have happened to me in my life but it would probably take a couple of novels to describe every little detail, and since that is not the assigned task, I will sum it up as much as I can. First of all I’m 28 years old, I have been on my own up until about a year ago, when I began dating my girlfriend, Jessica. I understand that many people including myself have had to overcome many different
hardships.
No one can know exactly what everyone is going through, for the fact that everyone has different ways of dealing with life.
My mother; when I was 6 or 7 was diagnosed with multiple myeloma; a type of bone cancer, she was told she did not have long to live and that put a strain on our already well conflicted family. She ultimately survived well past the expectancy that the doctor had given her, 14 years, until her ultimate passing.
During her long fight I did not really have what is considered a normal childhood.
I was obligated to grow up and take care of things myself a lot faster than expected. Such as doing laundry, cooking, cleaning the house, and buying groceries. After she passed, I have had many manual labor jobs in the
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construction industry, thanks to the help of my brother, Brian. He taught me how to weld and I caught on very quickly, so I started working all over the west coast and eventually ended up as a welder in the shipyard here in Portland. About 6 months ago, my brother died of a heart failure, and that has had; shall I say an unpleasant impact on my family and I. Before he died, I had been over the lower level construction job and decided I should go to college for the first time and become an engineer. Here I am trying my best to get started and I know it is
going to be a long road ahead. In order to become an engineer, I need to develop better writing skills.
As for my writing experiences, I am not sure whether to call those good, bad, or mediocre. I suppose the fact that I have done any writing at all means that it is good. The last time did a writing assignment was way back in high school about 12 years ago, since then with my job, there has not been any real need to write an extensive paper on anything. If I did have to write, I would only write resumes, emails, texts or filling out job applications. Which with resumes I only had to write one, for the fact that my reputation as a good hard worker seems to follow me and was spread by word of mouth by co-workers, friends and family. So all I really had to do, for a job, was fill out applications. I have had to write a few emails for jobs, as well as brief emails to teachers regarding something with classes which is the most recent. I also have experience with texting since in the last 5 or 6 years has become very popular. When I do write anything, I am usually in a relaxed state of mind.
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My writing process is probably similar to a lot of peoples writing form/style.
I prefer to write in the afternoons, and if I do, preferably with some type of beverage hot or cold with or without alcohol depending on my mood. I like to have some type of food in me, it really does not matter what it is as long as I’m not distracted by hunger.
Having some background noise, does not really matter what it is as long as it’s not loud and obnoxious, but I think I do my best when I’m by myself versus being in a large crowd/group of people. I like writing with a computer/phone other than pen and paper because it seems as if it reaches a finalized stage a lot faster, whereas with paper, after you’re done you have to basically rewrite the whole thing, and type it out on a computer anyway. If I have writers block, I find the best thing to do is to take a break. No more than an hour or two and come back to it fresh. All of this happens in stages and not usually in any particular order. After reading, “Practical Advice” in, ‘The Writers Presence’, a few quotes stood out to me. From the section, “Getting Started”, in, ‘Practical Advice’, I really agreed with Mark Twain’s quote: “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret to starting is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one” (11). I agreed with this one because I really had a tough time starting this essay, but once I organized my thoughts just a bit, it was not as
overwhelming.
The second quote that really stood out to me was also from,” The Writers
Presence”.
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In the section, “Revising”, from, ‘Practical Advice’, by Robert Cormier: “The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile” (17).
This quote also helped me with getting started. It influenced me to just start writing, much like free writing, so I could add/ eliminate later if needed. By reading these and many other quotes or pieces of advice, put my mind at ease for writing in general.
I feel I’m an inexperienced writer, but I also feel I’m heading in the right direction for it. I just need to practice writing more. I think that organizing my thoughts, as well as freewriting, is definitely the way to go for me. I am able to get out a lot more ideas and focus on getting what I want out, so that I may sort, edit, revise, and rewrite it all later.