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- Reading responses must be AT LEAST 200 words.
- Include your full name at the end of your comments. Unnamed comments will be deleted.
- From the "Comment As" drop-down menu, choose Anonymous, then click "Publish."
- Reading responses are due by midnight on the night PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.
Dinty Moore couldn’t have described writers block any better than he did. This is exactly how the voice in my head have spoken when I have tried to write and simply can’t. I sit for hours hoping for inspiration staring at a Word page that just has my Name, Class, Date and sometimes even title (rarely though). Yet, we must expect the lousy first draft and the negative voices and somehow embrace them enough to write, even if it doesn’t make any sense write to write. Sooner than later you can get out of that rut and release yourself from that writers block. Stay for the “Red light, the Green Light will come after.” In Victoria Elliot’s article we read as is said in the title, “Remembering my Mom’s meatballs.” She didn’t know there even was a recipe to begin with, all there was is memories of several ingredients much like writers block in figuring out every what to write next. From bits and pieces the recipe is revealed in the end. Both readings came to be very helpful as well as a heartwarming article about family and traditions in the sense of helping us as writers and getting through it.
ReplyDelete-Christina Velasquez
I enjoyed Moore's description of writers block. Which one of us hasn't experienced it. I also liked his analogy of the red light green light. Sometimes it does feel like I have everything I need but just cant articulate it properly. I sis not agree with him saying that we should not walk away or the block has won. I am a firm believer in giving yourself a break. That does not mean that you gave up. It's just a small break so that you can come back and reevaluate your work with fresh eyes. I have found that a small break has helped me more than writing a bunch of unusable gibberish. I also really liked Mom's Meatballs. Most of us attribute our memory of food to a certain event or a person.
ReplyDeleteDawn Bustamante
Moore’s “Red Light, Green Light: Tips for Conquering Writer’s Block” explains accurately what befalls writers who struggle with their writing and their own choices. His homing on “the Negative Voices” accurately presents this with dialogue that many individuals have possibly felt. However, he also expresses throughout his entire excerpt that these roadblocks can only stop you if you let them get to you. He expresses that one must be ready for the voices, and to ignore them when they come. If one gives them attention, it allows them to manipulate your work. He follows this same idea when bringing up “The Lousy First Draft”. We have to expect our writing to be not that great, but we must at least make one.
ReplyDelete“Mom’s Meatballs” by Victoria Elliott is a essay that expresses a moment in which regular meatballs become a part of something much bigger than itself. At first, the meatballs represent the hopes of her mother and love for cooking, and doing things her way. However, as time progresses, the mother herself forgets how to make the meatballs. We then realize that as the daughter knows how to make them, the meatballs have become a part of the mother’s legacy, as Elliot and her father realize that what is going to happen to her is what happened to her grandmother, and she doesn’t have that much time left.
David Leal
In, “Red Light, Green Light…” Moore says that there is no such thing as a writer’s block. That all it means is you can have good days and bad days. That if you stop writing for the day without trying that means giving up. I don’t think that’s true. There comes a day where I just cant seem to write anything. No matter how hard I try, I cant articulate the words and write them down on paper or on my laptop. So I take a break and come back to it another time. This doesn’t mean I’ve given up. Though his tips on how to avoid writer’s block are helpful. In other words, expecting is accepting and moving on. The essay, “Mom’s Meatballs” by Victoria Pesce Elliott was so sad. I ended up tearing up at then end. When my grandfather passed away I cried because of my mom and because of all the things I should’ve done and never did. Promises broken. Anyways, my grandfather suffered from Alzheimer and dementia, at one point he looked at me and asked who I was. He knew me my whole life and in a second he had forgotten me. It was sad. So reading this made me sad. Out of all the stories we’ve read in this class so far this has got to be my favorite. It was about meatballs and the memories they held, the recipe became bittersweet to her.
ReplyDeleteAlejandra Rodriguez
These two readings I did not really enjoy. For some reason, I did not get attached or “wake up” while reading them. For example, in the past I have done the readings while being at work or being surrounded by crowds, noises, family gatherings and parties. Hey priorities, first right? Anyways I did not feel myself attached to the essays. For example, Elliott’s “Mom’s Meatball’s” I did not find the recipe for the actual meatballs necessary. I understand that there is sentimental value written all over the essay and could possibly connect to some readers since they have lost their mothers but I cannot relate. However, a person’s legacy can go behind the scenes, something not known to the public. This is what I personally believe. Yes, its fine to brag about our loved ones and what not but I find it very disrespectful to put out their recipes that made one’s childhood seem perfect.
ReplyDelete-Marco Garza
I can half-relate to what Moore says in his chapter “Red Light, Green Light: Tips for Conquering Writer’s Block”. Normally when I find myself writing, either for an assignment or for my personal work, I usually stumble upon “writer’s block” once I’ve been working on something for too long and need to take a step back to look at what I’ve written and take a small break to come up with something new. Rarely do I ever get negative thoughts when I’ve hit a roadblock, but I do often find myself getting frustrated when I can’t come up with anything only it’s out of determination to get something done. “Mom’s Meatballs” by Victoria Pesce Elliot is similar to the “On Chicken Tenders” essay from a while back in that it has to do with the memories and feelings behind the food as much as it is about the actual topic. Yes, we do get copious amounts of descriptions of ingredients and how the food is prepared but as we have discussed in class, if we don’t give our readers reasoning to relate to our essay or have any significance behind the food we write about then it will be nothing but a collection of ingredients without any personality.
ReplyDeleteNarciso Garcia Jr.
After reading Moore’s “Red Light, Green Light: Tips for Conquering Writer’s Block”, I can agree with how he views the situation. I have had negative thoughts about my writing countless of times and beating yourself over it will only make things worse. The self doubt of whither you are doing a good job or not really eats at you if you allow it. Moore’s point about expecting a lousy first draft is true. You cannot just complete it all in one go and expect for it to be an amazing piece of writing. We all have our flaws and that is what revision is for. We tend to be harsh on ourselves and by doing so we are creating a mental blockade in which we are not allowing ourselves to move forward in our writing. If we can get over ourselves then we will become free from the chains we bind ourselves to, and in a way become a better writer since we are changing the mentality of I can’t to I can by ignoring our own negative voices that may be hindering us. Reading “Mom’s Meatballs” by Victoria Elliott, was a saddening story in which her mother is going to be passing to the next life and one of the things that she would be leaving behind on Earth was her meatball recipe. I don’t see how Moore’s essay tied to “Mom’s Meat Balls”, but it was still a good read. I know we all are going to lose a family member in due time, it is inevitable. Elliot has an emotional attachment with her mom’s meatball ingredient. It makes me wonder how it will be when I am in that position.
ReplyDelete-Benito Reyes
In Red Light, Green Light: Tips for Conquering Writers Block, Moore discuss a problem that all writers deal with. Writers block is a symptom all writers will come by more than once in their life time. Moore does a good job of illustrating the problems writer deal with. I like the “Red Light and Green Light” metaphor. For me writing is extremely difficult because I hate myself. I doubt myself and constantly criticize a blank page. I am my worst enemy. I can be good and finish something. Most of the time I get scared when I look at a pen. I have crippling writers block. Thanks to Moore, I realize that, I am my worst critic. I think everyone is their own worst critic but writers are worse.
ReplyDeleteIn Victoria Pesce Elliott essay Mom’s Meatball, she talks about her mother’s recipe and health problems. I wanted to like the essay. I felt there was a lot of sloppy information. For one, she talks about her mother having several bad marriages, but Elliot says her father and mother still share a home after 42 years. I also didn’t feel the meat balls where all that important. And I felt the mother wasn’t really developed. I like the recipe but not for this essay.
Mathew Betancourt
In Moores, “Red Light, Green Light: Tips for Conquering Writers Block” I’m sure that mostly every writer has gone through not being able to put words together to make up a sentence. That’s normal it just makes you human. Everything wont be perfect because nothing ever id, but through this whole method of writing you try your best to make it perfect for you. Me personally I struggle with being confident about my writing, because maybe my thoughts/ideas wont resonate with people the way that I want them to. Thankfully with Moore’s tips throughout this semester and other readings we have read it has made me come to the conclusion that it’s okay to not please everyone because maybe the other half will love your work. You yourself are your worst critic because that’s how I am it’s a good and bad thing. The good thing is that you check and double check for the work to be perfect. The bad thing here is that the work won’t ever be perfect because it just depends how you define perfection. In “Mom’s Meatballs” what I got from it was that is not about the recipe itself its about something much greater than that. the recipe of the meatballs symbolized what her mother was leaving behind for her. Even though she was passing away she would always be there through that recipe the memories it holds within it. It was a sad story but it’s what life is about its unfair and you will get disappointed at times. How would life be if it were all good how could things be valued and looked upon? Life is a rollercoaster and things will be good at times then bad but you learn to deal with these types of things. The way that these two readings seem to connect well for me is that having writers block is considered difficult and you think you won’t ever get passed it even though you have the story in your head but you doubt yourself to being able to get passed this writers block . The Mom’s Meatballs is Elliot is going through an emotional situation that maybe she doesn’t think she will get passed it and the only thing she is holding on to is that recipe.
ReplyDelete- Abigail Vasquez
In Moore’s chapter on “Red Light, Green Light: Tips for Conquering Writers Block,” I felt that I could relate to it. Writer’s block is something that happens to me quite often. And although I have personally had to figure out ways to conquer it, it’s nice to be reminded that I’m not alone and that it happens to everyone. Lastly, I loved Elliot’s, “Remembering Mom’s Meatballs.” My mom is my best friend, and one thing that we enjoy doing together is cooking. She teaches me how to make those special Mexican dishes and reading this essay, just made me realize that I can’t take those moments for granted.
ReplyDelete-Joy Perez
“Red Light, Green Light: Tips for Conquering Writer’s Block” Moore talks about what happens to writers when they struggle with their writing and their choices. I myself do struggle sometimes when it comes to writing certain things and my only way to get out of it is to pressure myself with a time deadline and it usually helps me to get out of that writers block. He explains that you are in control of that writers block, so if you listen to it, it will stop you, but it is ultimately up to you in the end to let it control you.
ReplyDelete“Mom’s Meatballs” by Victoria Elliot, is an essay that expresses a moment where meatballs aren’t just represented as a food, but as something bigger. It starts off by representing the meatballs as the hopes of her mother and the love she has for cooking, and then moves on to her mother forgetting how to actually make them. Later in the story we realize that the daughter knows how to make the meatballs and sadly ending in the realization of what is going to happen with her grandmother and her time left with them. Most unique foods that I eat home-made have their special moment behind them, so anytime I eat it, think about it or see it, I get flashbacks.
- Claudia Anzaldua
Moore talks about one of the things writers fear the most (besides losing a hand maybe): writer’s block. Gasp. It’s scary and real, but not that big a deal really. In a way, I guess you can say that what I experience is writer’s block but I don’t like to think of it as a “block”. Rather, I see it as another opportunity to go back to the drawing board because that’s all I’m doing, really. Whenever I’m stuck on something, I stop writing, take a break from physically writing, but the ideas are still running all over my head. Moore says that writer’s block is when you give up and step away from the writing, but again, I don’t see it that way. I’m not the type of writer that can sit down and just write stream-of-conscious ramblings to get in the zone. I put a lot of thought into what I write. So, if I want to step back and do some more thinking, then I’ll definitely do so. I’ve done it for months at a time with no qualms whatsoever. In Elliott’s piece, I kept trying to find the block and I came to the conclusion that whatever is affecting her mom’s memory is the block. With that in mind, I thought it was pretty interesting because it wasn’t happening to the narrator, but it was certainly affecting her and those around her. That’s definitely a new spin on experiencing writer’s block.
ReplyDelete-Angie Acuña
Moore's chapter on writer's block really reflected some of things I feel we discussed in class last Wednesday. Moore's advice for overcoming writer's block boils down to "just write, even if it seems terrible." This is a problem I often face, and not seeing my first draft as the final draft is very helpful advice. To be honest though, I was a little disappointed by this chapter. Mainly because the "your first draft will be terrible" is the only advice that Moore gives. I felt so much more advice could be given to avoid writer's block. Especially since it's not the first draft that can lead to writer's block. I was expecting so much more from this chapter.
ReplyDelete"Mom's Meatballs" started off as another typical "this recipe is important to me" story, but turned into something quite different by the end. I was not expecting to read something so tragic and honestly very heartbreaking. I guess this essay gave me the exact opposite reaction of Moore's chapter. I had little expectations and was given something much greater.
Michael McCormick
I enjoyed reading Dinty Moore’s chapter “Red Light, Green Light: Tips For Conquering Writer’s Block” because it explained a lot of the issues I have as a writer. I liked that he said that all of the problems you experience as a writer can only affect you negatively if you let them. As much as I enjoy writing and focusing on a piece of work, I do get writer’s block and often fall into a cycle of questioning my own work and whether not it's good enough to put out or hand in. At times it really just is hard to find the words or inspiration to write something that you’ll wholeheartedly believe in.This chapter reminded me that as long as at least try believe in my own work and push through writer’s block (or any other issues) I’ll be fine.
ReplyDelete-Starleen Rendon