Annie Dillard Disscusion Questions

1-My pre-writting rituals, in the past, have been to procrastinate until the last moment. I am trying to correct this bad habit now, but throughout my high school days and much of my early college career, I could not jot down a thing unless it was due early the next morning, or during the next hour. I also have to be sitting at a computer; there is no hand writting for me. I cannot make my brain function or my creativity flow, if I am not typing. I think the procrastinatin thing was simmilar to Dillards. I needed the "fury", and the pressure of a vice clamp before I could get the words to come. Now, with many more responsibilities and not any more time, I try to work on my writting a little at a time in advance, but I still do my best work right before the deadline.

2-Unfourtunatley I feel like I rarely knock down bearing walls when I rewrite. My editting process usually is limited to basic grammer corrections. This, I feel, is a result of my answer to the next question. Who creates these limits? I think I do! I often put down my original writting and then feel predjudice toward changes. I often tend to believe that my first try is sufficient, or even more, perfect.I put limitations on the the changes that I feel are neccesary or improvements, and am often reluctent to knock down any bearing walls.

3-The metaphore of Dillard's that I most relate to is the "exploding typewritter" I feel like when I really get it into my head to write something it often comes out faster than I can put it down on paper. I rarely get stuck or slowed down. It kind of all just comes out. The metaphore that I would choose for myself would be something more like, "When I write it is a phychological illness." I hear voices. My only job seems to be recording what they tell me. However, I am not very good at using metaphores, or should I say that the voices aren't very helpful when it comes to metaphores.

4-As I started to explain in my answer to the last question, I do feel that writting is a "mystical experience." I often don't know where the words come from, and when I re-read what I wrote I frequently can't even remember writing or thinking of the things that I read. The mystical thing is that I am just as frequently incredibly impressed with what I read, as if some better author than myself wrote it.

5-I lean toward the feeling that Dillard is going for entertainment, however I also believe that the humor and entertainment could be for the purpose of interesting people in writting while the vaugeness could be for the purpose of avoiding giving those same people the oppertunity to form their own experiences instead of giving them a preconcieved notion of what it is like