My Life and Role as a Writer Essays - , Term Papers

My Life and Role as a Writer For the purposes of this paper, if I were to introduce myself it would sound like something out of an AA meeting. My name is James and I am a writer. This is simply how I see myself. I may not be good by the standards of some, but this is what I am and what I love. Writing has become a major part of my life and in many ways defines who I am in my life as I use it to define what I feel and believe in my life As I look back I cannot recall a time when I did not write. My earliest recollection of writing involved rhyming poems for second grade. I loved to write. As I entered into my secondary school years, however, my attitude changed in direct proportion to the perceived uselessness of whatever assignment I was given. My English grades suffered because I had no desire to write expository essays, or five page research papers. I was very much interested in the creative aspect of writing, but often felt a physical queasiness when I forced myself to write the assigned work. In retrospect it is bothersome that a thing I loved so dearly could cause me such anxiety. I understand the reluctance of young people to find any kind of enjoyment in the five paragraph essay, the standardized writing prompt or the mandatory theme. We have taken a thing that should be a joy and turned it into an exercise in tedium. When I first came to the university, I still harbored many of the high school attitudes. In many ways I was not prepared for college work simply because I had not disciplined myself enough to accomplish it. I had the ability and the knowledge I needed, but still refused to find relevance in what I was writing. By the time I returned to college I found new strengths in my maturity. It is a blessing to me now that I enjoy research and have found fulfillment in the creation of any kind of work. There is value in my words, regardless of how I use them. I have come to understand this and now use it on a daily basis. Relevance is not an issue now because I have discovered that what I have to say on any given topic is important and worth my work. One of my goals as a writer and as a potential teacher is to help foster this attitude in my students. I feel a good dose of hubris is a prerequisite to anyone who truly wishes to write and instilling this in a budding writer is a good thing. I need to help instill this feeling of empowerment in students that are not necessarily interested in writing as well. Even if this is not a thing they find important, they need to know that their opinions and arguments have meaning and importance and that writing is the best way to let those thoughts be known. My more personal goal as a writer is to publish. I once had a teacher who said that writing is not a masturbatory art. If you write the great American novel and toss it in your closet nothing has been accomplished. You have robbed yourself of great satisfaction, and the reading public of your art. I have written two manuscripts for novels and am presently collecting rejections slips. I have an immediate goal to surpass Bradbury?s collecti on of a thousand. I intend to submit non-fiction pieces to historic and travel magazines, working with some of the subjects I have come to love. I also intend to continue working with the Flagstaff CVB to bring the history of our town to locals and tourists.