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Bryce Harris
Ingram
UWRT 1101
29 October 2014
Portrait of a Writer
Writing is the most demanding task for me. There is always something to critique; hence,
perfection is nearly impossible. Drafts of papers are never quite done. Some of the greatest
writers in the world did not start that way. The great writers/authors of the past and of today took
many small steps to improve their abilities. Essentially, an individual has to crawl before he can
run. To write coherently and logically, it takes time and quality effort in order to achieve any
writing goals that one may desire.
Candidly, I hated everything that associated with handwriting and English. My abilities in
the subject were subpar, and I didnt write the way I spoke (Generally, I suppose that applies to
my generation today). It was artificial work on paper. There was no me inside my work. To
become a better writer, I thought it was ideal for me to mimic styles of other people like teachers
and my peers, so adults thought I copied and pasted words. I grasped the concept of sounding
like another author, but I knew that if I continued to write like this, I would have never found
me. It was not until my sophomore year of high school that I truly discovered my voice. Most
teachers required my papers to be formal, and since I took AP English courses, we kept the same
format throughout our essays: an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Doing
well on the exams. well, lets just say it never happened. Indeed, the course was more about
analyzing major novels and poems; however, I couldnt be personal. The day that my English

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teacher told me to take risks (I would be taking risks all the time once I began writing in college),
everything changed. I choose to use my humor: blatant and dry. Without my humor, writing to
me is boring. Watching paint dry on a picket fence isnt fun either.
Chocolate chip cookies, ramen noodles, jazz, and TV are the smells and sounds in my
room when Im writing. Technically, I cant describe it as multitasking but mere distractions to
keep ideas open in my mind. Yes; these are weird combinations; however, there as not as strange
as having a friend who types on the toilet for odd hours. I believe that takes first place and the
trophy. First, I open up a pack of ramen and cook in my microwave. Yes. It is the national
college struggle food. Then, I open up my pack of Chips Ahoy cookies (chewy chocolate chip
cookies, scrumptious, delicious, and mouthwatering, yall). No one messes with bae, but I
digress. Finally, I turn on some Cannonball Adderley (a jazz alto saxophonist) music and my TV
to MTV. I dont plan most of my papers. There is the occasional time in which I need to, but
usually I whip out my laptop on my bed and start typing what Im thinking. To top it off, Im
wearing a ninja turtle onesie. Beat that, Nicholas Sparks.
Perhaps, my best strength in writing is style and structure. How a paper flows is
paramount. Like water, papers have to flow logically, but there are always exceptions. If I had to
plan a paper, that would be the only portion of the essay I would consider. I break down my
introduction and conclusion first because those are the hardest parts to write well. Regurgitating
my introduction is the last thing I want to do. Imagine finding a turkey sandwich with Lays
potato chips in your lunch box every day. It becomes boring and expected. Does it not? I switch
my style from informal to formal and vice versa. All in all cases of writing, it is best to be as
flexible as possible. Using simple language to convey meaning is rather easy; however, if you
talk like youre having a conversation with a friend, it becomes something a little more

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interesting. If you converse with readers emotionally, you get them addicted like a twitchy ninety
pound man on heroin. This is a perfect example. Even though its a little risqu, its addicting
to read out loud.
The most frustrating part as a writer for me is to stretch out ideas. Im a very brief person
in thought and speech. I prefer to get to the point and not waste time elaborating on what I just
said; however, not everyone can understand me right away, especially, the reader. If you assume
the readers know what youre thinking, you lost. Imagine a bomb squad letting a civilian with no
experience in explosives to diffuse a bomb. That, my friends, is GAME OVER for everyone.
Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to expand on ideas and topics that occur in my paper. In
addition, I have a tendency to switch between present and past tense like in this paper (If you
could tell, awesome. If you couldnt, keep it on the down low). Its an easy habit to have because
much of our speech everyday naturally mixes the two together, and sometimes it slips into our
writing, almost like bilinguals slip in and out of languages. My goals as a writer are to expand
my sentences further and to stick to one tense only, depending on which would work better in an
essay. Its easy to stretch out sentences, but for them to better support ideas, is tricky. Writing in
one tense is not a difficult goal to achieve; it takes concentration to figure out any discrepancies
within papers. It doesnt have to be perfect, it has to be consistent.
As mentioned before, I do not like planning papers. I write from my head and speak out
loud while Im typing. It is easy to tell the difference between my planned essays versus the
papers that I write as I go. Writing should sound natural when one reads it aloud or silently. The
only thing that I do plan are research papers since my information and understanding of different
topics has to be supported by evidence and research of others. This is why my preferred style to
write in are narratives. I can tell personal accounts and anecdotes that I believe can catch the

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attention of readers. In addition, if you put your voice into your work, readers begin to bridge
your voice with words.
I appreciate the style and sentence structure of other writers. Even though William
Shakespeare was a poet and playwright, he was one of the best people who used iambic
pentameter in free verse. He made it look easier than people buttering their toast. (Ive cut myself
a couple of times doing that. Clumsy me). My sisters poems are in the same meter, too;
however, hers differ because she takes the body of the poem and turns it into a specific shape.
For instance, she has a poem entitled The Palm Tree shaped like a palm tree you would find on
a beach. A Segway into another form, I enjoy writing essays that deal with poem analysis. Using
the background of the poet, the structure, and the techniques he used keeps me intrigued; in order
to fully understand the purpose of a poem, you have to take everything into account.
Writing is challenging but rewarding at the same time. If one puts in quality effort and
time, it is unquestionable the amount of growth that he will gain. You do not have to be a
talented writer. Indeed, one has to take into account of rudimentary skills like vocabulary,
sentence structure, etc..., but more importantly, writing should be inspired by others, cultivating
all styles and tones of authors into one.