Process Writing

The process I went through when drafting and re-drafting the three major assignments this quarter varied from piece to piece.  The hardest piece for me to write was probably The Perfect Meal as the assignment in itself caused me a good deal of anxiety.  As I have very little cooking experience, a college student's budget, and almost no cooking resources to speak of on the K campus, the responsibility of cooking a perfect meal overwhelmed me.  Deciding on a menu that accurately represented some of my favorite foods (I actually felt like I was cheating on gyoza and tortilla de patata when I didn’t include them in the menu!), while simultaneously being conscientious of the film Food Inc. and the book The Omnivore's Dilemma was incredibly difficult.  I had trouble deciding the most basic things, like what kind of food to cook or whether or not I should go home to prepare the meal.  Pair that with trying to live up to Michael Pollan or Anthony Bourdain’s expectations of a perfect meal, and you have one stressed out foodie.

After cooking the meal, the writing, too, was stressful.  Due to poor planning on my part, I opted to write my rough draft the morning before making the five-hour drive back to Kalamazoo.  Though I anticipated on having a leisurely coffee and computer morning, I had forgotten to factor in finishing my Graphic Novel midterm, reading for Anthropology, and doing laundry.  Needless to say the allotted time for my Perfect Meal rough draft dwindled away leaving me only a solid couple hours to pump out a semi-respectable draft.

However, the upshot to a mediocre rough draft is that it allows significant room for improvement.  The in-class workshop helped me define what specific elements were still lacking.  For example, I realized that I had not acknowledged my brother’s existence in the piece, giving the illusion that I was an only child.  Other helpful criticisms included taking out the part about the wine tasting, avoiding chronological order, and including more details about the relationship with my mom and what it meant to cook with her.  However, the downside to the workshop was that going into it, I knew I was pretty much going to re-write the whole thing.  As a lot of my peer's critiques were about things I had already planned on scrapping, some of the comments didn't really have much impact.  After work-shopping my piece, I ended up tearing it apart and attempted to build it back up.  Though I only ended up keeping a few of my original sentences and ideas, I think that in this case, writing a horrible rough draft led me to the polished final product I have today.  I really like how it ended up, and had I written a better first draft, I’m not sure it would have turned out the same way.

Overall, writing The Perfect Meal, and all the pieces for the Food and Travel Seminar, significantly improve my writing.  I now understand more accurately what it means to show, don’t tell by avoiding over-used or hyperbolized adjectives.  Instead of saying the meal was divine and delectable, I need to show that through description and let the reader come to his or her own conclusion.  By showing the reader how it is, instead of telling them I can create a voice of authority as the reader learns to trust me. 

Other specifics I learned this quarter include avoiding loaded words such “authentic,” “real,” “exotic,” and “unique.”  Before taking this class I didn’t realize the implications (or lack thereof) of using these words.  However, I now know that words like “authentic” tread into dangerous territory and essentially raise more questions than they answer.  Authentic to whom?  What makes it authentic?  Who are you to say it’s authentic??

Finally, the last thing I learned about my writing this quarter is the importance of a central theme in a piece.  When I was writing my memoir piece (Our Sevilla) it took me a long time to figure out what the piece was actually about.  In my rough drafts I tended to start in one place and end up in a totally different place.  I can now see that having a strong theme woven throughout the piece not only makes it easier and more enjoyable to read, but give readers a solid idea to take away from the piece. 

The Food and Travel seminar had given me a great base to start seriously writing about food and travel.  When I go abroad next year, I will be able to articulate my thoughts and experiences in an educated and engaging manner, drawing on this class for context.

Thanks for a great quarter, Marin!  What a wonderful class!!