To Be or Not To Be...that one journal entry

This week I tried imitation writing. Turns out imitation writing can be really hard when you have a mind voice bothering you every two second. Case in point: the time I tried to imitate Sarah Cowells style of writing using her piece 'The Partly Cloudy Patriot'. This is how it went:

 

I'm pretty sure I was in my living room, trying to take a nap when I heard the news. India had landed a rover on the moon. My first thought was 'They don't already have one there'. Everyone thought I was funny. I did not. Truly, the event felt disconnected to me. I should have felt proud or happy at the least, but no matter what I tried,  found it unsettlingly hard to express my joy.


Now most people don't see what's wrong with this. I clearly can't help but critique my writing (is this something all writers share?), but let's take a moment to discusses the main point of the diction of Sarah Vowell's piece: humor. She tries her hardest to relate to younger audiences. In my case...humor is a far cry for help. In contrast, it scares me how easily my own style of writing has developed. I present an excerpt on what I hope to one day be a book  that I created, once again, when I was attempting to take a nap in my living room:

 

Leaning against the deep brown door to the cottage that I had called my home for the last 10 years, I tried my hardest to hold back my growing irritation at the male who stood in front of me. Truth be told, it wasn’t the male who my irritation stemmed from but rather the shadowed figure that I could feel lurking in my peripheral. The least she could do was say hello. It had been 10 years since they’d last seen each other for gods’ sake and she still had the audacity to hide. 


See the difference? No? Let me explain. The second excerpt of my writing is much smoother. It flows with a destination in mind (and it is NOT because of the hours of plot drafting that went in before). In very clear contrast, the first excerpt is put together as a an attempt to do something that I clearly had no interest in. It's messy -in the nicest way to myself- and does more of a disservice to Vowell's piece anyway. It also makes me realize that I probably shouldn't do any more of this imitation writing stuff and focus more on my own style (disappointing, honestly).


Signing off for now,

Reality Sucks 

Comments

  1. Aleezay AhmadSeptember 17, 2023 at 8:08 PM

    It's so interesting to see how much smoother your writing is when it's in your own style. Also, I would love to read that book someday! It already has me hooked

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sara ZSeptember 17, 2023 at 8:39 PM

    I see what you mean about the second one being more smooth. But still I don’t feel that the first one is bad. I feel like most of us felt out of place when we did the imitation writing. It was definitely my first time doing something like that and we really didn’t get much time to do it. I crossed out over a third of what I’d written as I was writing it. Let’s keep practicing during class and get better at writing in style! I would love to read your book… you should send me a copy :)

    ReplyDelete

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