week three: overcome

Hello, world!

It's so lovely to be able to blog about my WRIT3050 journey. I was incredibly excited when I found out that WRIT3050 was being offered this semester, and quickly enrolled in the course without a second thought. As an aspiring magazine journalist, I believe that this course will be a truly educational experience, and I hope that in the midst of learning more about creative non-fiction, I will also be able to sharpen my own CNF writing skills. 

I think it's important to identify the issues that impact the way we write. I hope that, with this post, I will be able to identify the things that hinder me from writing well so as to overcome these challenges. These are the two main issues I believe affect my writing.

1. Writing under pressure. 

When it comes to writing my diary or writing for leisure, I find that I am more creative, more courageous. But, when it comes to assignments (especially the ones under my Writing major courses) or writing for publications, I panic. Suddenly, my words become rigid and my writing voice disappears. I am less courageous, which in turn makes my work bland.

2. I overthink. 

This is directly related to my first point. Because I know I clam up when under pressure, I tend to overthink everything-- my words, my sentence structures, my entire article. I can take hours analysing a single paragraph, editing its sentences, rearranging words, and so on, only to find that I have totally turned a completely fine, if not great, sentence or paragraph into an awkward-sounding one. I need to stop overthinking. 

I'm sure I have plenty of other weaknesses, but these are the main ones. While I don't think I'm a downright awful writer, I could definitely do with a lot more confidence in my work, so that I overthink less and write with less restraint. Confidence, and more practice; that's what I need. I hope that, by the end of this course, I will be able to overcome these challenges.

Looking forward to a great semester ahead!

Julia