English 1111 (16030) Daniel Humphrey Professor Musselman 9/5/2013 Back when I was a kid, I wasnt much of a writer.

The idea of a book report was loathsome, and I wouldnt even start reading the book until the week before the report was due. On some regrettable occasions, I would type up the report as late as the morning before. But somehow, that always managed to get me by. I considered my process to be working, and so it was left unchanged for a long time: read the book a few days before, write the report as soon before it was due as I could. But the writing became worse and worse, and A papers lowered to Bs and Cs, but I was still content to slack. Eventually, that just wouldnt fly anymore. I remember the last paper I wrote like that was a report that required several pages discussing in detail the motifs of the book, the characters and how they evolved, and the things I was left with after closing the book to its back cover. Instead, I wrote one page, containing six short sentences, written double space in size 18 font. I was given an F, and it was demanded that I would get a writing tutor. A woman named Ms. Murray, who had been teaching my sister at the time, agreed to tutor me. Once a week, I would be driven to her apartment in a complex of plain yellow buildings overlooking the nearby river. Together she, I, and her fluffy gray cat would go over my writing assignments, taking time to consider the right language and how to best convey my ideas. I remember the many times trying to find the right word, it sticking to the tip of my tongue like fly paper, before she would tell me what it was, at which point I would always say oh right, of course! But as time passed and her cat and I got to know one another, my writing slowly improved. I remember the struggle to write became more of a process, one that required time that I would have to learn the patience for: create an outline, then a rough draft, then revise. And not

just once either, and dont skim over it right before you hand it in, really take the time to read it aloud, point out the flaws, ask your friends to do the same. Like any sculpture, start with the block and chip away until you find the product. I remember the painstaking hours she and I spent together mulling over each high school application essay, considering what should go where, how to improve the story by considering the details worth mentioning, and so on. Im pleased to say I got into my first choice for high schools, and continued to write good essays afterwards. Also as a child, I wasnt much of a reader either. Truth be told, I was more into video games. I was able to occupy a character in a distant world where amazing and magical things happened. I could move my thumb and my characters arm would move. I could pan the camera up and observe the enormous fictional planet adjacent to mine fill the sky like a behemoth. It was me, alone, in an exciting world of monsters. I spent a lot of time in these worlds, which some might argue was a waste. But I disagree. As I grew older and began to leave video games behind, I turned to books. Only then did I realize the same ability to occupy a distant land, except I was the one to fill it. I realized my potential to create my own beauty, not just have it computer rendered for me by a guy in a studio. And so I read books about the fantastic and bizarre. A favorite author of mine, Chuck Palahniuk, uses his books to redefine what it means to be human. In every novel, he takes our world and distorts it like Picasso, leaving only enough reality for us to identify the characters, from an ex-beauty queen missing her jaw to a time traveler whose drug is getting bitten by wild animals. This has had a huge influence on my writing, because I aspire to tell stories as he does, in a way that is both engaging and novel. Rather than write a long boring list of facts or pros and cons, I try to convey my argument using examples from real life, as I hope has been made clear in this essay.

In high school, I also dabbled in poetry and prose. I took a very interesting class my junior year in which we read various authors and poets, and considered the elements of a good poem or prose piece, from the use of alliteration and variety of language, to emphasis on the different connotations behind words. Since then I have read various poets and writers, and I have tried writing poetry of my own. I try to use language that is varied, meaningful and engaging, with the goal of, as they say, showing, not telling the reader. Its like the old Chinese fable goes: a turtle happens upon a frog sitting in a well. The frog believes that because it knows the well it knows the whole world, but the turtle tells him of the sea. And yet, despite anything the turtle might say, the vastness of the sea is beyond the frogs imagination. So, like the turtle, the reader must be shown the sea, not told about it. So, in summary, Im confident in my ability to write due to my background in writing, from the concrete to the abstract. My experiences with the essay format, as well as with novels, poetry, and prose, have helped to form the style with which I write today.