Week 14 Lab: Advice to Writers

 

("Typewriter" by dr. shordzi via Flickr)

For my Week 14 Story Lab assignment, I read through some quotes on Jon Winokur’s Advice to Writers website. The first quote that really interested me was called “The Golden Hours” by Hilary Mantel. It basically says that even if you are busy with work, you can still put a few hours aside and if you are undistracted, you can accomplish a lot. I completely agree with this statement because if I honestly put my mind to writing, I can finish a lot quite fast. Even if I am busy with other schoolwork, I can always put aside an hour or two to do some writing for this class and if I am completely focused, which does not happen often, then I can accomplish a lot in that time period. The next quote that I related to was a quote by John McPhee called “Writing is Selection”. This quote is about how each part of writing is part of a selection process. As a writer, you choose the next paragraph, next word, next sentence, and more. I completely agree with this because as the writer, you have the power to do anything you want. As such, you also have the responsibility of choosing everything that you include in the story and make sure you select the appropriate things for your story. The last quote that I read was called “Write Whatever You Want to Write” by Rachel Khong. It was about how you should basically write whatever you want and don’t care about genre or sticking to the guidelines of a specific genre. If you write the story first and then create the label of your work the way you want since the work is your own. I agree with this statement as well as your work is the byproduct of your own imagination so you should be able to label it whatever you want.