The Writing Process

It was a question that stopped me mid-sentence, knocked the writing wind out of me. “Would anyone want to read this?” My instinctive response to your question, Marin, was “Oh god, no! No one is going to want to read this crap.” Why would any sane, sensible person value my opinion on issues that real critics write about, for real. I had, up until this point, been quietly going along with my review writing with the naïveté of a junior sales associate in the women’s petite department at the J.C. Penney in Canton, Ohio. Seriously, though, it had not occurred to me that the point of this writing was not just to be informative but to be entertaining and engaging to an audience.

In my “Gran Torino” review, I filled the space of 500 words with information and some analysis and a definite opinion. While I think my review more or less met the technical requirements of the assignment, the language I employed was certainly too formal (and boring) to be of interest to an outside audience. Nothing about the language was conversational; it sounded more like a critical essay than a review. After reading published, professional reviews of the movie and the reviews some of my classmates had written, I realized how imperative a conversational style and a unique voice are in this genre of writing.

The review I wrote of the KIA exhibit “Spared From the Storm,” was the first time that I really saw my voice and personality come through. With only 500 words, I had to be concise but comprehensive too. I decided that the art itself would not be my focus; I mentioned some artists and made a general quality assessment of the objects but did not stay too long on the subject. I could have chosen to write a 50,000 word history of the artwork and not even come close to completion, and so I chose a more narrow scope. Focusing mostly on the layout of the exhibit, I was able to establish my authority and to offer a unique and critical review of the exhibit’s presentation. This was the first assignment for which I felt I had asserted myself as a legitimate review writer.

When it came time to decide on a topic for the final assignment, I knew that I wanted to write about art. I knew I didn’t want to write a straight art review and wasn’t set on writing a profile of a particular artist. My original plan to write about the future of young artists in an uncertain economy and an art world in decline kept getting too big even when I tried to really narrow the focus. It was also more challenging to keep the piece relevant to my audience of fellow classmates and to local people, and I wanted it to be regionally relevant.

I changed my topic to the failing state of the recently “revamped” Detroit Institute of Arts because I was interested in how the institution reflects the social, economic, and political climate of Detroit and its surrounding communities. I felt that in my analysis of the D.I.A.’s renovations I could be critical and informative and that in comparing the D.I.A. and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, I could touch on both negatives positives in discussing Detroit’s art culture which would make my piece more comprehensive and engaging. The initial feedback from my classmates was helpful in making me be more focused and relatable in my writing. Martin commented, “Be careful that this doesn’t become too much of an informational sort of news feature.” I definitely tried to keep this in mind while writing. For every informative statement I made, I tried to include a critical and opinionated argument. Getting feedback from my peers was, throughout the course, very helpful for me. It allowed me to better contextualize and focus my writing and to have an audience in mind while writing.

What I most got out of this course, was a new approach to writing that forced me to be bold, concise, informative, and entertaining and to do it in 500 words. I have a tendency in my writing to let quantity of words, replace quality of argument. I allow myself too much space to make an argument that can be stated and proved (and done so evocatively) in many fewer words. This course made me “get at” what I’m really writing about. My writing really needed this.