Free Write in Literary Composition class:
I recall sitting on my bed, bent over a notebook, the smell of sticky late summer wafting in through my windows. I had no air conditioner, just a window fan, so with the downfalls of sweating to death came the benefits of being awoken each morning by the smell of the morning dew, the sounds of cars passing on the street below, a landscaper firing up a weed wacker. I’m 16 years old, and what I’m doing is writing lyrics for, what I can only assume will be, the biggest band in the world, of which I am currently the lead singer. This memory stands out to me in particular because, historically, it felt like I would write in the evenings, with the lights down low, my parents slumbering peacefully in the room adjacent to mine, but this particular morning I woke up inspired. I remember the inspiration as it was derived from another bump in the road in my on-again-off-again high school relationship that I was particularly tore up about, resulting in a lengthy evening to early morning AOL instant messenger argument. I can still see the pages of the red five star notebook I would use (it had been a book for one of my high school classes, but, clearly, this was the more intrepid purpose of it), in my mind they’re mostly crumpled and a little dirty from it bouncing around in backpacks, coming with me on walks, etc.
Analysis/Reflection:
Having grown a little more acclimated to campus and my new (for now) state of existence I found myself spending more time on campus, particularly the library. I took a very hilarious/goofy ass video of me setting myself up in the library which I’ll use for my multimodal essay. I thought I would have a hard time writing in “more public” places having grown accustomed to writing and reading in quieter spaces (my home, or the back office of the barbershop during lunchbreak when everyone leaves for an hour), but just by simply throwing some headphones in and, in this instance, listening to Beethoven I found myself in a good place to write.
Theory Application:
Once again, Elbow's “Closing My Eyes as I Speak: An Argument for Ignoring Audience” comes to mind. When I was younger and writing lyrics, my entire goal was to create something in which people could find a point of relation. As much as I'd like to think that I was simply writing for myself, I was acutely aware of the fact that I wanted people to find commonality in what I was saying so that they would enjoy hearing the music as much as I enjoyed making or playing it. This idea continued on in my life through the advent of social media, where I would express opinions or thoughts on Facebook or Instagram, sometimes to vent my frustrations, other times to find commonality with others in the face of situations I found difficult, enjoyable, or myriad other emotions.
This freewrite also brings “Teach Writing as a Process Not Product,” by Donald M. Murray into the equation, particularly when it comes to my writing lyrics when I was younger, and how that relates to how I composed things throughout my adult life, including this current period back at college. In my lyrical composition I was only ever working off of the finished product of songs I heard from bands that I enjoyed. Much like Murray mentions how students work that they turn in, when based solely off of their knowledge of other writers' finished work, and not being exposed to the process in which those other writers got there, leads to a level of disappointment amongst the student as well as the instructor. I'm not saying that's the only reason my 16-year-old punk rock band didn't become famous, but it definitely led to my writing not being as polished as it could have been, because I had no knowledge of the process itself. This is relevant to myself even by today's standards, as this class has delved into some of those processes, but overall I have not had much exposure to how more renowned, or established, writers compose their work at any period of my life, leading me to occasional feelings of helplessness and disappointment in the work I am producing.
The title for this blog being derived from Refused, "Summerholiday vs. Punkroutine" off of their album "The Shape of Punk to Come." A mind blowing, and inspirational, record to the 16-year-old lyricist referenced above.
Elbow, Peter. “Closing my eyes as I speak: An argument for ignoring audience.” College English, vol. 49, no. 1, 1 Jan. 1987, pp. 50–69, https://doi.org/10.58680/ce198711506.
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