Joseph Shieh

Frances McCue

Honors 345A: Interdisciplinary Writing Seminar: Pilgrimages and Idle Travels

March 8, 2017

Reflection

The amount of writing is not necessarily linearly proportional to the amount of time

spend the paper. On frustrating occasions, I can spend several hours writing and only crank out a

very short paragraph. Conversely, I can spend as little as ten minutes and generate an entire page.

Ive discovered that certain factors facilitate in generating a large volume of writing: complete

isolation from the environment through headphones and listening to classical music or certain

Coldplay albums, Parachutes, Ghost Stories, Viva la Vida, or Mylo Xyloto. The music

simultaneously sets the introspective mood and inspiration required for my travel and memoir

writings/musings. I also tend to do my best writing during night time, probably because it helps

set the ambience of quiet introspection that is required for the papers of this class. I often try to

place myself in the readers position and try to anticipate how they will react to my writing, using

readers response. I want readers to be immersed in my memories and dreams. To do so, I

imagine myself exploring my memories and dreams, walking through the landscape, trying to

describe the atmosphere, accessing my thoughts and reactions, trying to include as much detail as

possible. My writings are often works of appreciation or direct questions directed toward society.

I often try to convey appreciation by including historical background and/or beautiful sensory

detail to indicate significance. I often question society very directly, sometimes seriously,

sometimes with dry humor to take the edge off; however, I have noticed that it can be difficult to

distinguish between the two based on some feedback that interpreted the serious aspects as dry
humor. Finally, one of the most crucial aspects of writing is to maintain momentum. Once I start

writing, I try not to stop, which means I can sometimes write for hours at a time. It also means

that I try to resist the temptation to edit while Im writing. Editing can seriously hamper my

writing because then I lose focus, focusing on perfection instead of conveying my thoughts.

Afterwards, I put the paper aside for several days and come back for edits, focusing mostly on

content if possible instead of grammar. The paper is only successful if it can replicate the same

thoughts, feelings, and experiences that I had when I initially wrote it, especially important for

other people reading my travel or memoir writings.

In a sense, reading everyone elses writing has improved my writing. In a sense, they

showed me how to properly write a travel or memoir piece. They showed me that such writing is

not merely reporting sensory details. Its also about conveying a certain tone through the use of

personal thoughts and reactions. They also have provided some inspiration for my writings. One

important peer reviewer was Diego Lingad. His feedback on my midterm paper was very useful.

He indicated that I should establish that the three ancient Roman figures were fictional. He also

indicated that I should clearly distinguish between external events and internal events

(interaction with the environment vs. internal thoughts). I was inspired by his writing and that of

Alexandra Bartos-O' Neill, who both used title texts to indicate time or location, which is

technique that sometime used in movies. I used this particular style in writing my final paper,

essentially a compilation of revisions of my past papers alongside some additional new material,

to indicate both time and location. I was also inspired by Dan Godfreys use of vignette writing,

analogous to Harry Potters pensieves. I used this particular style to describe the locations I have

traveled to. I was also inspired by Mykahs use of italicized introduction narrative, which is

analogous to an opening scene in a movie. I used this particular style to help establish the
atmosphere in my final paper. With the second half of the quarter focused on conveying tone, I

tried establishing different tones for each location in my final paper, perhaps successfully,

perhaps not. On a closing note, I would like to thank Frances McCue for teaching to enjoy

writing, a discipline I once abhorred, by allowing me to experience the enjoyment associated

with writing by allowing experimentation and sharing ideas with other writersa far cry from

the prompt-driven writing of academia today. Thank you.