Frustration about Writing

Now that we all know the Power of Writing from New Voice’s convincing essay, I also want to vent my frustration about learning （practicing） writing from my own personal experiences.

I like reading. I (have) liked reading Chinese novels since (I was in) elementary schools. When I was a kid, I used to spend all my spare time reading, even on(at) dinner tables (with my parents scolding me)despite my parents' scolding. To my credit, I read really fast, finishing one 500-page book in one day, and moving on to (the) next one the next (in the following) day. Sadly, this habit didn’t boost my writing or speaking skills, even in Chinese.The problem with my reading habit is that I never paid attention to how authors express their ideas or tell their stories, but only to the ideas and stories themselves. With a “scientific” mind which I have always been kind of proud of, I was trained to grasp the “truth” out of the “details”, keeping only the “truth” and discarding the “details”, believing that I could deducte the details later myself. Unfortunately, even though this trick might have worked for sciences (courses), it won’t work for writing and speaking, which require almost the opposite, describing a whole lot of details and sometimes, only the details.

To make matters even worse, I don’t like reading in English. I know I should. I pushed myself very hard several times in the past, but was never successful. I blamed this mainly for lacking (the lack )of vocabularies(y?) my limited vacabulary. But thinking of it (in retrospect) now, I believe the real reason is that I have already passed that(the) golden age for(of?) reading novels. I am not into other people’s stories that (as) much as (when) I was young, because I have so much of (am in struggle with?) my own stories every day stories to struggle with. I have no patience to read other people’s drama happened centuries ago any more because I need to take care of my own first. As a matter of fact, I stopped reading Chinese novels, too. Now, to kill time, I only watch the Chinese dating TV reality show, which gives me a false sense of reality by watching real people making fun of each other on stage.

As a woman, when I write, I have this (the) tendency of babbling about my own feelings. I read somewhere that this kind of tendency is considered ( as) one of the common drawbacks of women writers. We women tend to focus on our own emotions, our own and life stories, instead of the big picture about more important aspects of life, like (such as) morals of human race, like and (the) future of the world, etc. This critics (criticism) kind of ashamed pushed me futher away from writing, since I don’t want to embarrass myself and bother others with my own tiny little small world.  

But hey, after reading Eat Pray Love, I (have) regained my confidence. The book doesn't discuss anything serious. It uses short sentences. It talks about a woman’s own emotional journey. And it is "freakishly successful", as the author put it herself.

So, should I give it a try too?  Haha, that’s why I wrote this piece down here in(on) a sunny Sunday morning, in my pajamas with a cup of hot coffee, imagining traveling across (around) the world and writing down every （minor） details of my own thoughts to make a good living like her.

Bricks are certainly welcomed as always.

所有跟帖： 

• 寫作練習， 請拍磚！ -jennea- ♀ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 11:55:24

• excellent, excellent writing! -非文學青年- ♀ (129 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 12:51:58

• Really? Thanks! now I am feeling great! wait for your bricks! -jennea- ♀ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 14:44:33

• 這些家夥們肯定是嫉妒你背誦得好，給了你不少磚頭。哈哈。我的小磚頭和一點寫作的建議 -非文學青年- ♀ (23239 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 22:30:09

• I made a lot of stupid mistakes -jennea- ♀ (603 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 23:04:23

• 更新了， 大謝！ -jennea- ♀ (93 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 23:20:29

• 恩，這個我也覺得不好改。 -非文學青年- ♀ (101 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 23:36:04

• A nice writing! -NewVoice- ♀ (85 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 13:23:57

• A few bricks! -NewVoice- ♀ (1537 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 13:55:37

• 全部收下！ 重謝！！！ -jennea- ♀ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 14:45:20

• 寫的非常好。希望我練半年後有這個水平。 -i999- ♀ (1255 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 14:24:04

• 對， 對！！ 老師也給我指出過，可我老是忘記。。。 -jennea- ♀ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 14:47:34

• 你現在寫的就不比我差，你也寫點啥麽。就writing發表一點想法啊，或者其他的題目 -jennea- ♀ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 14:56:58

• 我是一個沒有啥思想的人。嗬嗬。生活平淡枯燥。很難寫出好內容。 -i999- ♀ (125 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 14:59:32

• 我也一樣。所以不喜歡寫作。不過真要寫下來，也挺enjoy的。看著自己的東西的感覺，就算再差，也很親切。 -jennea- ♀ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 15:17:42

• 我覺得你用詞比較好，思維flow的也好。我很久沒寫東西了，要向你看齊多練練。 -i999- ♀ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 15:21:12

• 我那個老師老說我寫東西不夠有條裏，因為沒有先寫提綱，後作文。可我就是耐不下心來，總是想到哪兒寫到哪兒 -jennea- ♀ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 15:26:55

• 老美的寫作style也是八股文。 -i999- ♀ (210 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 15:35:21

• 就是就是。否則寫作就不好玩了。嗯，我也努力消滅 -jennea- ♀ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 15:39:08

• 順便說一句，我寫中文，我們老師的評語也是“形散神也散”！ -i999- ♀ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 15:36:08

• Excellent writing,恩仙！ Your writing details are full of truth now -beautifulwind- ♀ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 14:37:20

• 哈哈，not enough yet. You should read EPL, too. -jennea- ♀ (50 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 14:46:16

• My 2 cents -jingbeiboy- ♂ (2526 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 14:40:11

• 謝！！都收到。 in the morning 還是 on the morning 有點糊塗 -jennea- ♀ (26 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 14:51:26

• 回複：謝！！都收到。 in the morning 還是 on the morning 有點糊塗 -jingbeiboy- ♂ (152 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 15:00:41

• 哦，原來是這樣！謝謝jingbei！ -jennea- ♀ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 15:05:43

• 寫的真好！幾塊磚，不知對不對 -同學小薇- ♀ (3832 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 14:45:18

• 嗯，都對！ on dinner tables 當時就覺得有點怪～～ -jennea- ♀ (75 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 14:54:09

• 我改得不對的地方請其他同學指出來，Jenna也別介意，我也是在練習寫作，水平亟待提高。 -i999- ♀ (2092 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 14:57:18

• 你說的都對，單複數我老是亂用。還有代詞和時態。 -jennea- ♀ (61 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 15:03:40

• 三個小學！！ -i999- ♀ (132 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 15:05:19

• every 後麵應該不加複數， 我忽略了。 -jingbeiboy- ♂ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 15:15:40

• 嗯，我改過來 -jennea- ♀ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 15:18:50

• Good job! A good beginning will make a good ending.~ -EnLearner- ♀ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 16:23:04

• thanks! -jennea- ♀ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 21:44:09

• 就去給病人弄點下酒的藥，轉身回來樓就蓋這麽高啦！ -千與.千尋- ♀ (541 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 16:42:42

• yes. that's my guilty pleasure for every weekend. -jennea- ♀ (355 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 16:55:25

• 我的guilty pleasure 太多了。。。。揮淚逃走。 -i999- ♀ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 17:03:49

• haha, life is short, do whatever you love! -jennea- ♀ (233 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 17:41:37

• 我總是用life is short給自己找借口。哈哈。entertainment對宅大媽的我來說定義很窄。。。 -i999- ♀ (0 bytes) () 08/28/2011 postreply 17:46:01