Dr. Brianne Jaquette
April 3, 2017
I have found that there are three things essential to successful writing: unrestricted time, quiet solitude and stimulating conversation. There are instances where a writer needs quiet solitude to hear the voice of the muse; then there are instances when a stimulating conversation is the voice of the muse. However, in whatever instance the writer finds himself, he must have unrestricted time; time to hear, to explore, to consider, to discuss, and rebut, record, and reflect. Considering this, of the two writing assignments, I found the second most conducive to a successful writing process. It accommodated all the requirements.
The first in class writing exercise proved a formidable challenge for me. The time restrains produced stress and anxiety that stemmed the flow of my creative juices and resulted in writer’s block which persisted despite the quiet solitude and adversely affected the quality of the work produced. Assignment two provided the perfect environment in which to produce good quality work: unrestricted time, stimulating conversation and deferred quiet solitude. Initially, the scene selected seem to yield no substance on which to build a piece but the conversation between me and my colleague produced insights that probably would have taken an inordinate amount of time to discover or not be discovered at all. Time made a huge difference. We could listen to each other, explore, and discuss what the other was presenting, and rebut, and record when and where necessary. In addition, the extended time into the weekend facilitated the quiet solitude to ponder and reflect on all that was said during class time. The end product hopefully will reflect the ease with which this assignment was completed.