Here are the guidelines:
- Reading responses must be AT LEAST 250 words.
- Include your full name at the end of your comments. Unnamed comments will be deleted.
- From the "Comment As" drop-down menu, choose Anonymous, then click "Publish."
- Reading responses are due by 10pm on the day PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading
When I first started writing I would always try to write about superheroes who were trying to save the day. My writing would always consist of a hero, a villain, and a setting for those characters to fight in. I would write for days until I felt that I have given justice to the story. When I was done writing I would give my stories to my little brother and have him read them back to me. I always thought that when I wrote things down my writing was clear enough to understand. That the story made sense. Then when my brother would read them out loud I would cringe at the fact that my stories were all over the place. My writing was hopping from scene to scene. It wasn’t making any sense half the time and I always wondered why I could never get my ideas to tie together on page. Dinty Moore has finally helped me understand my ongoing pursuit of mental rabbits. My ideas were not being centralized to the bigger story. Because of all of my meandering my story was being buried with nonsense. I also liked his imagery of the “great celestial puppeteer.” He explains that every idea is like a small moon, it has the freedom to move around, but the planet is what always rules. My interpretation of that statement is that we as writers have freedom to do whatever we want in writing. We can do whatever we want whenever we want it. The problem with that infinite amount of freedom is that sometimes it doesn’t make any sense on paper. If we start wondering off the main point of the story than it just becomes babble. However, if we wonder off and connect it back into the story than it is not babble anymore its intentional structure. Another point that Dinty Moore made and that I agree with is his thoughts on writing the nature essay and the travel essay. A nature essay is more than just seeing a bug sitting in a tree leaf and writing about it. It is about how you as the writer responds to these things, how it affects your life, and what catches your attention. He later explains that “without our personal, distinctive voice, there is no reason for the essay.” The same goes for Travel Essays. Writing a travel essay can be a lot easier for beginning writers because it at least has a natural story arc. The story can be about the journey and the adventure of seeing some place new. He also advises to not write about how different the culture is because that is always an obvious form of writing. We already know that everything will be different from what your home experience is what really is important is the humanity of travel. The new people you meet. The culture that you encounter. How everything looks in your perspective. That’s what a travel essay can be about. The interaction of the travel.
ReplyDelete- Juan Garcia Jr
word count: 502
In the “Pursuing mental rabbits” chapter, Moore discusses the subject of chasing our thoughts, and how sometimes things get lost in translation. A problem I often have myself is staying on topic, or creating better transitions to keep my writing flow smoothly. He later describes something he calls the “the great celestial puppeteer”. In this metaphor there is an invisible gravitational pull where “ideas may float off...but cant get too far.” (Moore 83) he says something that I really liked, consider each of our ideas a small moon, we have certain freedom to move (as a writer in our writing) but keep in mind that the planet rules. Our moons (ideas) are locked by gravity to our home planet (our main point). As long as our moons dont float off completely, there will always be the intended structure. For “Writing the nature essay” Moore states that writing a nature essay is describing what we already know, for example the way we see leaves on trees, but in a new way. He says you must become intimately associated with your subject to describe it in a way that the reader would have never thought of or would have seen themselves. The beauty of nature is that it changes so often, you just have to situate yourself long enough to see what nobody else really sees. In “Writing a travel essay” Moore discusses travel writing having its own “Journey structure”, where it will always have a natural beginning (when you arrive), natural middle (your stay) and a natural end (when you depart). With this natural structure in play, some consider travel writing to be simple, however, there is still some difficulty in travel writing. Moore warns against being cliche and simply describing what you see in plain sight as well as over-romanticizing a culture, after all they are people, too. A problem with travel writing is that we tend to just notice the surface of things and not what lies beneath. He suggests you do research on the area you plan to travel to, to understand their customs so that things that may seem peculiar otherwise seem normal upon arrival. He also reminds that a travel writer is on pursuit, and that a tourist is on vacation. So travel with reason, with the intent to not just observe what we see, but appreciate all that lies beneath the surface too.
ReplyDeleteAmanda Victoria Ramirez~
Moore’s “Pursuing Mental Rabbits” discusses ideas on how to create a successful essay. He states that “…a successful essay is a hunt, a chase, a ramble through thickets of thought, in pursuit of some brief glimmer of fuzzy truth.” (pg. 76) I definitely agree with this because I also believe that in order to create something great, that will keep a reader engaged and leave them with the memory of those words, one has to work hard and put a great amount of effort into that writing. Moore also states that “…the writer whose work seems graceful and natural is probably the writer who has worked hardest on arranging and rearranging and rearranging again.” (pg. 78) Just like a musical masterpiece, an essay or a story in a book needs to be continuously tweaked, taking out unnecessary parts in order to make the piece stronger and the only way for that to happen is for one to read it over and over again until it the flow of the piece feels perfect. I also believe that in order to keep the story at its best level, one has to be willing to put pieces of one’s self into the writing and to really try not to hold back on details in order to make the story stand out and allow the reader to understand the writer or the person on who the story is about. This is something that I feel is very important when it comes to non-fiction writing and personal essays. It can be so easy for the piece to sound dull after a while and I think that the only way for that to be avoided, no matter the topic, is for the writer to be as honest as possible and really put their heart into it because the reader will be able to pick up on something that isn’t whole.
ReplyDelete-Monica Casanova
Dinty W. Moore’s example of an Abecedarian is terrible example to provide, yet it displays Dinty W. Moore hesitation to engage in “personal” writing as he misconstrues and twist his terms of chasing rabbits and invisible gravitation pull. Chasing rabbits is an exploration, or literary leaps, from object to object, subject to subject, event to event (Moore 76). The invisible gravitational pull is meant to ground the writer in the theme, yet allow for tangent leaps (Moore 84). Moore abuses both in his example of an abecedarian, and therefore, I see myself upon the task of providing a definition of personal writing to you my classmates and professor. Personal writing, unlike “personal” writing, engages in the critical reflection of ones worries, fears, concerns, happiness, whatever it may be the spiritual and physical embodiment of the writer and his/her state is in. Keyword is critical. For writing to be personal to be engage in critical reflection ,it must ask itself the questions the writer initially does not want answer. This means visiting the writer’s dark corners or shady neighborhoods of his mind. In other words, the writer needs to be uncomfortable while writing the personal piece. This will keep the writer, and possibly the reader who in personal writing is second nature, interested and consumed in his writing. Unlike the abecedarian example of Dinty W. Moore who openly accept he was unsure of what route to take his piece. Had it been months with the several and no spark was ignited, it was crucial for Dinty W. Moore to ask himself that uncomfortable question: what is driving the piece. He finally shared it, but not till the climax of the story with the letter N. Personal writing is not meant for its exploration to begin at the climax. Personal writing needs to be forceful, needs to take the writer by surprise. He/she needs to begin question himself/herself and his/herself relation to the world and attempt to answer it. Otherwise, climax will arrive too late.
ReplyDeleteAlejandro Sanchez
Before reading, I had no idea what writing about nature or writing a travel piece meant. Thanks to Moore i learned that writing about nature is pretty much an art and it takes skill and patience. The reader does not want to hear about cliches, like how the rain makes one gloomy or how beautiful a sunset it. Moore explains that writing about nature really means look at nature, obviously, but making different connections. Analyzing nature in a way that no one has done it before.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the travel essay, i did not find this chapter very helpful. I am still quite confused in how i should start with my writing or what not. I think Moore’s chapter on a travel piece must be complimented by a lecture in class in order to fully understand it. If i was not taking this class, and instead i was writing for fun, this chapter would not have been very helpful. Moore contradicts himself and that makes me, the reader, confused. He mentions how writing about travel is easy but then he says it is very very hard..
I also wish Moore would have elaborated more in ways of how to write. I disliked how he talks about the future, like if we have to go on vacation to write this piece. I wish he would have given us advice on how to write a piece about someplace we have visited before, instead of making it seem like we have to travel just to write this piece. He gives us tips on what to do/how to prepare when going on a trip and are planning to write a piece, as if we only go on vacation to write. I thought, we the readers, could have benefitted more from this reading if Moore would have given tips on how to write a travel piece of a place that we have visited before. Lets say, by giving us tips on how to write a travel piece by looking at photographs or digging up in our memory.
Jennifer Millan
Word Count 344
I have always appreciated outlines and structured writing so I don’t have much of a problem when it comes to taming mental rabbits. This is sometimes a problem because sometimes we need to “ramble through thickets of thought” to “pursue your own brief glimmer of fuzzy truth.” (Moore, 77) I have a hard time opening up and wandering through the thickets of my thoughts because I’m afraid of losing my reader and annoying them. I also could not relate to the sentiment behind the nature essay. Nothing about humidity, grass, leaves, rodents, or insects catches my attention. I’m not sure if having asthma as a child has something to do with my unfavorable view of nature, but I know that if I tried to write about nature it wouldn’t be in good light. However, I do have feelings of interaction and rejuvenation with other environments. I find myself daydreaming about life in the city rather than life out on a farm in the middle of nowhere. Skyscrapers are much more fascinating than trees, no matter how long and hard you stare at them. I could get a lot more personal with busy streets full of ambition and energy rather than a mosquito infested body of water that probably smells ghastly. Because I recognize my close mindedness towards nature I do believe that traveling to a remote and nature filled area would be good for me. Praying in a “small place of worship that no one visits” (Moore, 197) would be a great way to connect with the area and bond with the people who live there. I believe that my curiosity would be much more genuine if I traveled to a place that I knew less about.
ReplyDeleteSarah Sanchez
Chasing mental rabbits is very interesting. I've always hated to write as long as I could remember. Funny, considering that I’m an English major, right? This short read got me to thinking how I have always lived my life following things by the book, I’m obedient, and I hate the thought of doing anything that is wrong. With all this in mind even my writing has always been dull. Even right now I believe this post is dull, but im enjoying the fact that I’m wiring my own thoughts. I have always had such an enormously difficult time thinking of ideas and being creative with my writing but chasing mental rabbits is part of the writing process. You could be writing something and expecting an end result each time but that shouldn’t matter because in the end you will have a result you will not expect. It takes time and effort just like chasing a rabbit, chasing a dream, or chasing a good grade. Part of the fun is the road you take to achieve set goal. Considering a nature essay its similar in how you could be looking at a tree but talking about said tree is just boring as Moore says. It takes time and thought process. Instead write about the bark and describe the detail. Think about the many bugs and critters that scour the surface to survive, or get home not knowing if they’ll even make it to their destination. It makes me excited to write because I have all this freedom in my writing and how looking beyond the surface is the key to better writing. Of course it takes time, its like he said, no great writer wrote his or her work in one sitting, it took multiple attempts until finally reaching an end result that made the work come naturally together. I have no experience writing about travel essay but it seems the best to work with because you’re going on an adventure and each day, no, each moment is filled with something you are not expecting. Although I don’t go out much, I can understand how even a simple commute to work for instance can be littered with and endless wave of imagination.
ReplyDeleteAmaury Cabrera
The chapter regarding the chase of mental rabbits, puts the reader in the beagles’ shoes. The writer clearly sets you into that position as the dog is chasing the rabbits around the block and even the town. The writer compares how the reader should be more like the beagle as the dog chases the rabbit because it thinks it will be worth all the effort and because it has a fun time in doing it. He explains that the reader should also have fun in chasing after the great essay and have fun while finding new ways to write and impress the reader. In chapter 17 the writer explains how to put attention into the details of mother nature. Sure we go on with our lives seeing nature everyday but we rarely pay attention to the little details that widely explain the object better. He explains how to learn the better terms of nature instead of just the word “tree”. What kind of tree is it? You also have to go out and get a little dirty, explore and find out the true colors and scent of things. All together you should explain nature in ways that the reader will be more interested and how do those things affect you. Chapter 18 I would have to disagree with the writer as he says that we have to read up on our destination so it can help us write better on our travel essay. I feel that my travel essay would have to be on the experience that I had on a place I visited and not what other people have written. Yes, I would look up some good places to visit but not on what other people have experienced while visiting this place.
ReplyDeleteThe chapter regarding the chase of mental rabbits, puts the reader in the beagles’ shoes. The writer clearly sets you into that position as the dog is chasing the rabbits around the block and even the town. The writer compares how the reader should be more like the beagle as the dog chases the rabbit because it thinks it will be worth all the effort and because it has a fun time in doing it. He explains that the reader should also have fun in chasing after the great essay and have fun while finding new ways to write and impress the reader. In chapter 17 the writer explains how to put attention into the details of mother nature. Sure we go on with our lives seeing nature everyday but we rarely pay attention to the little details that widely explain the object better. He explains how to learn the better terms of nature instead of just the word “tree”. What kind of tree is it? You also have to go out and get a little dirty, explore and find out the true colors and scent of things. All together you should explain nature in ways that the reader will be more interested and how do those things affect you. Chapter 18 I would have to disagree with the writer as he says that we have to read up on our destination so it can help us write better on our travel essay. I feel that my travel essay would have to be on the experience that I had on a place I visited and not what other people have written. Yes, I would look up some good places to visit but not on what other people have experienced while visiting this place.
ReplyDeleteLucio Vasquez
I have always believed the best work of an individual comes within the framework of orchestrating a performance that comes so naturally to the essayist, it's almost as if there was no space between the pen and paper. The merge between the messenger to the physical form of the blank canvas meet only to create a divine piece of literature. This is only obtainable through a persist practice of trials and tribulations in which enhance the writer throughout time. This is when I believe the piece the author is trying to write is at its best. When you have an idea you want to get across to the audience, if one can do it in a way that has no define structure to follow, one does so in a way that is seamless. That's when your material is speaking nothing but the truth of the writer. The morals, and ethics of the writer, everything one was taught throughout a lifetime of learning was finally brought to the forefront to create a piece that makes nothing but sense. One has the audience on the edge of their seat ready for the next sentence to happen. You know when you wrote such a magnificent piece when if you were to take out one paragraph, nothing would make sense. You know you really got something going when you take out a sentence, and the whole paragraph is simply out of line. Even when you take out a word, everything seems to be thrown off and you make the reader double clutch and re-read what just happened. That's when you know, everything came naturally from a beautiful flow of thought to course-of-action. This is truly when the body, mind, and soul are aligned in harmony and synchronicity. The proof is in the pudding and your audience will be able to tell from the beginning what you stand for and who you have come to impress. This relentless pursuit to keep your reader engaged when it comes from a peaceful state of mind speaks volumes about the writer. The method that caught my attention was the Celestial Puppeteer. I enjoy the fact that when I'm writing a piece, I'm the one behind the piece. I can easily manipulate how I want the story to peak or dip into a valley. Almost guiding the emotions of the audience through a roller-coaster affect of emotions. The writer is the master, and the audience is just that. I like this style of writing.
ReplyDelete-Ruben Loa
Reading the three pieces I can say that “"Pursuing Mental Rabbits," was a headaches compared to "Writing the Nature Essay," and "Writing the Travel Essay." The idea behind chasing of rabbits was to keep the spirit of exploration alive by somehow being like the beagle who: 1) Thinks catching the rabbit will be worth the effort; and 2) Chasing them is fun. What I mainly understood was to be able to get the idea smoothly into the transitioned thought of the point of the essay and that we as writers get to take charge. He brings up the reader again yet, with his own essay as an example, says he did not need to speculate what was going through his mind since he knew. I would have liked to see more of that in his example like the glacier example where he says she was able to make a connection from her thoughts and experiences to that glacier. From his essay, I just got all the father stuff and his belief in no being his father but it was just there with no other explanation but the form he took on. The other two, “Writing the Nature Essay," and "Writing the Travel Essay," I did find useful since the tips were written before me and I felt as though some of the nature writing insights are almost what I look for with photography but now I need to write it out instead of showing the image of “a thousand words.” The travel tips I feel are useful with what I have in mind to write on what I saw, felt, learned, and discovered in Chine this passed summer. I appreciate that he mentioned not all nature is beautiful because there is death and nature that was overturned by industrialization.
ReplyDeleteLisa Marie Serna
In the chapter seven “Pursuing Mental Rabbits” Moore tells a story about a beagle who liked to chase rabbits and would end up not coming home for extended lengths of time. He uses this story to illustrate how he believes how we should model our attitude on writing. Like the beagle named Smokey we should chase the essay and get lost in the process. The goal from the chase would be eventually, with hard work, we would catch the rabbit in the form of a well-written essay. The process should be fun and it should be an exploration, which ties in well with Moore’s story about the rabbit and the beagle. On the topic of writing the nature essay I found that many of the things Moore describes to get in-tune with nature are many of the things I have grown accustom to in my daily life due to my mother. While I don’t know as much as my mother, I can identify many types of butterfly, birds, and bees, flowers, etc., just due to her passing comments while we are outside. One of my favorite sounds is that of a humming bird, which is unmistakable once you have learned to listen for it. Those kinds of things would be interesting to write about and I agree with Moore that knowing how to identify things in nature by name is much more interesting than just using a vanilla term like, yellow flower, grey bird, etc. As far as the travel essay I am not interested in it the same way Moore is. I don’t find traveling and sightseeing fun, however, I would find going to a different city to attend a car meet fun. Big car shows happen everywhere but South Texas it feels like. I would love to travel to see one and write about what I saw. Whether I will get the opportunity or not this year I guess I’ll find out soon.
ReplyDelete-Jesus Alexis Prado
Before I began reading these chapters I thought to myself, “writing a travel essay will be easy” being that I have traveled a decent number of places in the U.S. over the years. I also thought “writing a nature essay just sounds difficult” being that I don’t find the area I live in very interesting. Its funny how my perspective on the two essays changed just by reading Moore’s advice. I think the most difficult aspect of a travel essay is how to sound like a writer and not a tourist. When I was contemplating what I would say in my travel essay, I was running across silly ideas that made me sound like I only visited the place instead of actually experiencing it. Then I started thinking about the nature essay and I found myself lost in memories as a child when I spent the majority of my time in my backyard. My issue with the nature essay is how can I take a small backyard and turn it into something nobody has ever experienced before? I’m excited to figure this out for myself. I haven’t quite made up my mind on which essay I’ll be writing but Moore has definitely offered some valuable insight on the two. When reading Pursuing Mental Rabbits I was very entertained because I agree that the best kind of essays are a pursuit, hunt, chase and all of the above. I feel like an essay should never lack potential no matter what the topic. I personally like to think that my writing resembles this style but I would like to improve the way I think as far as creativity. This will take my writing to another level where I should continue my pursuit.
ReplyDeleteKarina Saldivar
My head hurt from nodding so much after reading “Pursuing Mental Rabbits”. One of my biggest weaknesses when writing is staying on point. I feel that I get too much into the zone and jump from one place to the next, not fully realizing that what I am writing will more than likely only make sense to myself. I have zero creativity, so it is very hard for me to come up with anything. That’s why I feel that when I finally have an idea I go with it until it is all written out, no matter how incoherent it is. It makes sense to me then and there. The comparison between the writer and the beagle really helped put things into perspective to me and how I should try to better my structure and ideas when writing a story. I have only ever written one nature essay and I missed so many things. Like the chapter says, describing the exact kind of bird or tree helps the reader further picture the scene you are describing. I feel like the nature essay will require a lot of research and an in-depth look at nature aspects that are normally only written in plain language. As for the travel chapter, I did get a bit intimidated by it. I have never left the valley, so it’s hard to assume and go off only what I’ve looked up online when writing about someplace I’ve never been to. I feel like the travel essay will definitely be a challenge for me to write.
ReplyDelete-Jennifer Gutierrez
Moore describes the need for structure within an essay in the idea of staying on topic. In “Pursuing Mental Rabbits”, he explains how it is important to observe the work and maintain a course of thought. As much as I understand the importance of keeping to the main points I also find it hard to not wander within an essay from time to time. I think this sort of wandering can sometimes add a greater depth to the story as opposed to simply sticking with traditional patterns. I do understand that the essay must appeal to the audience, just as the previous readings suggested, but that is not always the most ideal approach. As he mentioned with “the great celestial puppeteer” we can allow our writing to wander as long as it is coherent in the end.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, in “Writing a Travel Essay,” Moore explains how travel writing is a “journey” all in itself. Of course the need for remaining on topic still follows through to this type of writing as well because as he mentions we must include a structure that has a beginning, middle, and end to the traveling itself. He also emphasizes the need to keep away from clichés or from being too plain in our efforts. This would also work for the nature essay as well. I think the best approach for travel and nature writing could include the use of deeper thought and a newfound glory to places or landscapes already seen from the exterior. This would require the use of a much greater visualization of everyday things.
-sheryl
When I started reading these essays I was not really interested in what they had to say. It wasn't until I started reading writing the travel essay and reading the nature essay that it really caught my eye. I'm not sure if it is because I am not really an outdoor person and I can see what they're saying or if it's just because I understand where they are and what they're trying to get to but I really enjoyed reading these two excerpts. In writing the nature essay on page 189 there are three quick tips which really helped me understand more about this type of writing. When Moore was saying to learn to identify trees grasses and other things using guide books it really made me understand how I can use more descriptive language to enhance not only my addiction but also enhance the imagery in my writing. It is true that there is a Scarlet Tanager on the red Blaze maple being more interesting than a bird lands on the nearby tree. Saying that on the following page on 190 number two also gives a good idea of something that you can do to increase these types of imagery vocabularies by squaring off a square foot of land. I do this often when I go hunting or fishing simply because I'm usually the one that digs the hole for the fire. This also reminded me of things I can look out for in the following week seeing how its dove season. Now I feel like the only thing I have to brush up on is my color palette because to me everything's pretty much blue. I don't see much aside from blue teal and sky blue.
ReplyDeleteCemantha