WP4: Embracing My Vulnerability
The role of writing is not something that I would have ever thought about before taking this class. I’ve done a lot of writing in the past, but most of it was meaningless to me. I was lacking the passion and interest of a real writer. As a result, it was hard for me to find the purpose of my writing, and to truly understand what information I was providing to the discourse space. So, when I first started working towards our writing projects, I found myself struggling to answer WHY I was writing about my topic. But, as this class progressed, the role of writing was able to teach me that my ideas were valid, and that I had a voice in what I was talking about. I wasn’t just regurgitating more information from another source, but rather, I was expressing my own thoughts and ideas about topics that I actually felt passionate about. The role of writing taught me to write fearlessly, and to understand the power in being vulnerable with my audience.
Prior to taking Writing 340, I have done a considerable amount of writing in my previous college classes. However, despite the substantial amount of assignments I had completed, the writing that I was creating was always arbitrary, and I never felt passionate about the contents of my work. I found myself always working towards a specific word count, and just writing away thoughtlessly in an attempt to finish my assignments. THIS was the role of writing for me. It was to sound professional and to find the best way to get my point across without sounding biased. I didn’t allow any of my personality or opinions to show in my essays, simply because I was taught not to do so.
So, when I first started taking Writing 340, writing about topics I was actually passionate about was a foreign concept to me. When we first started working on WP1, I picked a topic that I knew I felt passionate about, but I struggled to find the purpose of my writing, and to understand what unique information I was providing to the discourse space. It was difficult for me to organize my thoughts effectively where my audience could understand what I was trying to convey. But, as the class progressed, I realized that I was failing to do the one thing that we consistently talked about: writing fearlessly. In my previous writing assignments, I never had the courage to push boundaries, out of fear of sounding informal or biased. As a result, my writing was very safe. I wasn’t providing any new information or ideas that my audience could reflect on. Once I realized that I was still playing it safe, I knew that I needed to work on being fearless, and jotting my thoughts down even if they might’ve seemed biased or controversial.
Ultimately, I’ve discovered that writing fearlessly means that sometimes, you have to allow yourself to be vulnerable. Our vulnerability allows our passion and personality to show through our writing, and it is this vulnerability that drives our purpose for our writing. The posts that we had to create on Medium really allowed me to explore a wide variety of topics, and to be vulnerable with myself and my audience. I wrote a post called Don’t Tell Me How To Grieve, where I talked about mourning the loss of my dog and mourning the loss of my grandfather. In all honesty, writing that post was very uncomfortable for me. I was hesitant to post it because I wasn’t comfortable with all that information out there for my audience to read about. However, as I was writing that post, I realized that by allowing myself to be vulnerable, I was ultimately able to write fearlessly. It allowed me to come up with new ideas and to feel passionate about what I was writing — contradictory to what I’ve been taught to do in the past. I’ve learned that being vulnerable and letting your emotions show through your writing is the biggest part of writing fearlessly and being able to create impactful writing.
Being in this class also allowed me to focus on finding my own voice as a writer, and letting that aspect show through my writing. In my previous classes, I’ve always been taught that writing should be unbiased and professional, meaning that I couldn’t show any signs of individuality in my writing. Coming into this class, it was difficult for me to make the transition to a more informal style of writing, one where I could use my own voice to drive the purpose of my writing. However, after our many writing workshops, I learned that the role of writing can be used to enhance our voices throughout our writing, and allow us to add valuable information to the discourse space, no matter how many times our topic has been discussed. This class has made me realize that I have my own unique voice, and my ideas are valid. Just because a topic has been discussed before doesn’t mean that I should be afraid of adding onto previous discussion. Writing isn’t always meant to add brand new information or facts to a subject, but rather, offer new ideas and perspectives to give my audience a fresh take on a topic.
Ultimately, when I first signed up for this class, I was dreading it. I came into this class with the expectation that it would be the same as all of the other writing classes I have taken in the past. I’ve taken other creative writing classes before, however, the defining feature that categorized the class as “creative” was the fact that some of our papers were about non-traditional essay topics. So, I genuinely did not think that I would leave this class with any knowledge that I didn’t already have. However, once we started writing and working towards our WP1, I immediately noticed how differently this class was structured. I was definitely pushed out of my comfort zone, but I was able to sharpen my writing skills beyond just knowing how to use MLA format. I feel as though my skills as an actual writer have been improved immensely. Going forward, I now have the tools to understand the purpose of my writing, the confidence to introduce my ideas to the discourse space, and to write fearlessly.
