How to Become a Writer & the Writing Center

I am in the Writing Center and in AP English at my school. One would think that I may have a panache writing style that flows throughout, but that's not how I feel about my writing at all. The first short story I read this week was called "How to Become a Writer," by Lorrie Moore, and it describes the process of writing and the problems that many writers face when they do write. I decided to read this short story first because writing is a subject that I am very sensitive about. It may seem that from my involvement in the writing process, I am a great writer, but I never feel confident about my writing. This year, for example, we have had about three-four essays assigned to be done at home. I redid every one of those essays two to three times. And by re-do, I don't mean changed a word here and there. I mean that I made an entire new outline, new avenues, and a new essay in general. I feel like I am a step back as to the rest of my english class, and I have to try that much harder to become a great writer. But I think that this short story has really, really given me confidence because I now know that it does not just happen to me; it happens to everybody.


First, the story as a whole."How to Become a Writer" has fortunately interested me greatly because of the very creative way that it follows a person through a story and all that writers have to go through. I thought that it was very creative how Moore goes through in explaining how writing is a craft that one loves, although it has its highs and its lows. For example, in the story there are many occurrences where writing had not helped her in society. She writes what she loves, and is told that it lacks a plot. Tells someone that she was going to be a phycologist instead of a writer. The person simply replies that she would be great with kids. She goes to parties and says that she writes. She tells her mom that she wants to pursue a career in writing. The mother replies "sure, sure you wanna be a writer," but obviously the tone is gloomy. All of these examples demonstrated how difficult being a writer and producing is. I mean, the girl did find out what she wanted to do, but it is such a difficult craft and art to master that nobody can master it. I guess this gesture really grounded me because it took me back to that reality that my writing is not going to be a work of art on the first time. Or second. Probably not the third. Writing is something that you continue to learn and practice with and if you don't get it right the first time, just like the girl in the story, you just have to try (and hopefully not fail like her) again.

I appreciated this short story for many different reasons. First, it was funny. Let me just say that I did not expect to hear that author talk about Playboy or what kind of gender you have to write in or any of that. It was a very funny story about a struggling writer. It also was something that kind of gave me advice about my writing. I am one of those kinds of kids that gets too thought up in thinking about what something means or what I am trying to say, so a lot of the time it comes out wrong. A lot of the time I get criticisms that say that I am leaving something out, just as the protagonist was criticized for missing the plot also. I did not think I had the liberty of editing someone else's paper and telling them what they should do because I had flaws in my own writing. Now I understand that writing is a process, and is certainly not an easy one. It is common for somebody to want to write again and again to become better. Overall this was a very good short story that informed me a lot about writing and the detriments of it. Oh, and the few benefits.