The Love for Writing: Joan Didion's Journey
The author of Why I Write by Joan Didion has used a few specific examples to tell her own tale in the first person to demonstrate her love of writing. Didion is an American novelist whose books highlight the chaos of American culture. She was born on December 5, 1934, in Sacramento, California, United States. After finishing from Berkeley, she realized that she was a writer who could convey her ideas and feelings on paper. (Campbell 65). She says that she is not a thinker but rather someone who analyzes situations before writing about anything that fascinates her in her environment. Didion writes with passion and does it until every question in her mind is answered. She uses a creative style, which gives details of the reason she became a writer through visual description of images formed in her mind (Worden and Young 581). She argues that writing is a way of telling others. This shows how passionate she is with writing everything that crosses her mind since she has to tell people everything going on in her thoughts. The opening of her story is great as she immediately explains how she got her topic "I stole the title for this talk from George Orwell" (Didion 1). In this case, she proves that she is a reader and has read various books from renowned authors to improve her writing skills. She also attests the importance of character forming by acknowledging the role questions and imaginations can play in developing the character of an individual.
The Power of Sentence Formation
Didion has written about her imaginations and questions, trying to provide answers in an interesting way. She uses powerful phrases to clarify the meaning of her statements such as when she says, "By which I mean not a good writer or a bad writer" (Didion 2). This implies that everything she does is out of passion and not mere expertise but expression of her thoughts. In her writing, Didion stresses the power of sentence formation as the main fabric of literature by claiming, "Grammar is a piano I play by ear" (Didion 3). This shows that one cannot claim to be a writer if one has no mastery of correct grammatical sentences. One may have beautiful thoughts and ideas but cannot achieve great work without mastering the correct grammar, especially in sentence construction.
A Writer's Journey: Unanswered Questions
Her conclusion is great since she sums up with a wit "Let me tell you one thing about why I write…" (Didion 4). This quote shows that as a writer one must have various unanswered questions in his/her mind to become successful. Didion's work is great since it gives insights into reasons people engage in various activities such as writing. Expression of one's feelings and thoughts contributes to career choices since it creates great passion in an individual. The writer encourages people to follow their instincts and focus on quality regardless of the profession they decide to take.
An Insightful Reflection: Why I Write
Why I Write is a great piece of work due to its description of the author's intentions of writing. The writer expresses her mind in writing and reveals that people have various reasons for doing what they do in their lives. For her, she is interested in expressing her thoughts and answering questions that keep on coming in her mind.
Works Cited
Campbell, Mel. "On Writing Heroes." Overland 218 (2015): 65. Print.
Didion, Joan. "Why I Write." The New York Times Magazine 5 (1976). Print.
Worden, Daniel, and Alex Trimble Young. "On Joan Didion: An Introduction." A/B: Auto/Biography Studies 31.3 (2016): 581-586. Print.
