I’ve never been much of a “free-writer” and the truth is, I’m still not. I find it difficult to let my thoughts flow and then arrange those thoughts in a smooth and concise manner. When I note all my thoughts and all the potential ways my writing can go, I find it hard to pick just one and get rid of the rest. That’s why I always try to pick a direction I want my writing to go and then to come up with the ideas afterward. It’s sort of like making the mold and then pouring the mix. I’m not sure if this process is effective and haven’t even thought about it, until now.
After reading my blogs, I see that I have different patterns for different types of writing. My prompt pieces follow a short formal essay structure. It introduces, develops and then concludes on an idea. My summary pieces are more random and are ordered according to the text being summarized. These pieces lack my voice and passive writing style. My film response pieces are sort of formal but are much more descriptive and analytical than my other pieces. They also include images from the film. All of my pieces stick to the third person (with the exception of this one). I find that these patterns help with flow and organization.
Out of all of my pieces, the summary pieces are my least favorite. Not only are they longer than the others, they allow the least freedom. Although I generally dislike writing the summary pieces, they are beneficial in helping me find information because they are a simplified and more concise version of the original text. I also didn’t really like my blog on “Bread Givers.” The reason for this is that I wanted to write about the author’s simple language and how it is sort of imagist. Maybe I should’ve chosen a different prompt so that I could’ve incorporated that thought.
My favorite pieces are my film pieces on Gangs of New York and Godfather:Part II. These pieces were descriptive and analytical. They also show my growth as a film watcher. They share my new-found knowledge about film techniques and symbolism. Looking back, maybe I could’ve let my thoughts flow more freely for pieces besides my film ones. This would’ve made my other blogs more personal, enlightening and creative.
After looking at my blogs, I realize that I could’ve gone a different direction, and I actually wish I had gone a different direction, for some pieces. Still, as I see them now, I am proud. I always feel like my blogs are terrible as soon as I submit them but for some reason, I am proud of them now. They are concise and to the point, yet deep and thought invoking. I think that my blogs developed to that level because of my note-taking.
I think of note-taking as a step toward writing about a piece. Whereas note-taking records the explicit details of a work, journaling provides a platform for analyzing and presenting the implicit meanings. Journaling is more effective at allowing you to take ideas, add your thoughts and make them your own. In other words, journaling is the big picture that you put together after gathering the little pieces using note-taking. The process of note-taking also tends to be much more tedious. In the end, note-taking, especially for longer texts, helps me successfully decide which direction to take my blogs.
