Friday, April 17, 2020
Why is the Death of a Writer So Close?
Why is the Death of a Writer So Close?It seems like every year, at the end of January, I am asked by many college students for writing advice, which is always given without any understanding of what exactly I mean when I say, the death of a writer. As a writer, my advice to these people is simple: don't be afraid to write.By the time I start on a term writing assignment, I have at least a month's worth of research, brainstorming and writing to do. I will always have a few pages of notes and usually these are lengthy and when they are read in class or submitted to the professor, I am not called upon to give them a thorough analysis. I am given a grade and the end of term writing assignment to write up an essay.When I get on a term assignment, I know the essay that I am working on will have me limited in how much I can do. I understand this as, I have to survive until the end of the term or the student will fail the class. If I try to write an essay the day before class, the essay will have to be reworked. If I submit it to the professor and he doesn't like it, I will not be given another term assignment.I know this because I was in your position, freshman year, and if I wrote the assignment early on, I was usually forced to write it late in the term, if I received a term assignment at all. My last term assignment was late on Friday night and I was forced to work it until Monday, if not early the next morning. In my opinion, the death of a writer is very close, and it has much to do with not trying to create and write as much as you can when you are trying to survive on a term assignment.This happens a lot to college students and this is why they get so frustrated and discouraged. Why should I be expected to have a super load of homework to finish before school?The professors often set up assignments for their students and let them write whatever they want to write, as long as they complete the assignment, get a grade and submit it to the class and keep on schedu le. The end of term writing assignment becomes the new normal, it seems. What then, is the difference between surviving and dying from this type of approach?Writers cannot survive like this because they are not told to. When they are told that, a writer's life goes into overdrive. For example, a writer who is trying to complete an assignment by the first day of term, or by Friday night, is probably not going to finish the assignment at all because there will be so much work and so little time.Students who are told that by the end of the semester they have an essay to complete and will be taken to task or their assignment will not be read unless it is improved are going to be very frustrated. Writers need more input and their work need to be put into motion in the right order and they need to be told that. In the end, this is the real death of a writer, being told that in order to be published, they will need to 'complete' something and survive.
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