9-12-12 Informal Writing - Sarah Allen

9-12-12

Greg Warman

English 1510

Sarah Allen – Informal Writing

                Sarah Allen’s “Inspire Writer vs. The Real Writer” deciphers the common misconception that famous writers love writing and all their writings seem to flow frictionless from their minds down onto their paper.  Sarah explained how one of her students brought forth the question, “I really don’t like writing. Is that okay?” This triggered her to ask her students if they liked to write.  After asking them, she asked them if they assumed that writers, people like her, enjoyed writing.  From their answers, she began to understand the skewed view of famous authors and writers that her students had.  They believed in an “Inspired Writer”; a writer who never struggled, never had writer’s block, and never wrote anything but the best papers.  Sarah Allen continues in this article with the explanation of famous writers that she looks up and how they had even come across times of negativity in their own writing. The idea that some students have is that there have been many great writers before them and that these writers have created masterpieces with great efficiency and ease all without facing struggles, mental blocks, or any other extraneous things preventing them from writing.   Allen explains that it’s this very mindset that causes students to dislike writing because they don’t want to “feel stupid” when writing a paper that does not come easy to them, all resulting in them never becoming good writers in comparison to this “Inspired Writer” that they have all created in their mind. Allen goes on by expressing the idea that by talking about writers block with other writers, you can learn to develop “thick skins,” and learn to break down your paper. After frustration and anger has left us in the conversing with others, Allen says that the room is now filled with productive minds. After practicing writing, without the frustration and just having an open mind, Sarah explains how one will develop habits of writing, and allow you to pick out the habits of other writers.  Patricia Bizzell is her example because she subtly uses the same organization method in her writers that make the information more condensed and less boring for her readers.  The main advice that Sarah Allen gives to her audience is to shut out the “Inspired Writer” and all the false beliefs and immortal traits that it has and just write.  Find a way to get past the struggles and writer’s block and find something interesting and develop habits that will better help you in your own writing.