to write well...

I'm willing to make mistakes, and luckily I'm good at it.

approaching which? Sorry I didn't quite catch that.

This is a great point! If you are going to write well you must want to write well, and take it seriously enough to study it and want to improve your writing. But, you need to have fun with it, or else your audience won't be having any fun either!

That's a good point, I think that's one thing that you can be taught that won't make you a good writer per say, but you'll be better than what you were. It brings up the idea of a business endeavor instead of an art project, where you want as many people to read it as possible.

So, I did take a creative writing course over the summer once. It taught me how to be a better reader more than most of my other English courses. This podcast of sorts, particularly this section, reminded me of how true my discover was.

I'm glad you mentioned the pivotal point of writing being an act of communication. It reminds me that being a recluse with my writing is not to my benefit and that I need to push myself to get people out there to aid in the process of workshopping my writing with me in order to meet the needs of the reader while still being satisfied with my work. Up until now I've only had experience doing such with lit essays, which is definitely my strong point, so I'm looking forward to meeting the newer challenge of sharing my creative work and not running away screaming while lighting my work on fire to hide it from the world. Not that I do that…but it is a possibility.

After I paused the roaring of my fan, yes, I can hear them- lovely ambiance.

This is an excellent point that I feel many writers, particularly those in the first stages of writing exploration, forget. No first draft will ever be the final product. Struggle is inevitable. Revisions and editing galore do not make a piece invaluable; rather, they strengthen work already done. Every successful writer goes through this process. This is something I have to constantly remind myself of, as I often catch myself saying, "What I just wrote really sucks." Perhaps it doesn't. Perhaps it simply needs reconsidered and revised.

This point I agree with most strongly! Two semesters ago, I was in Dr. Jerz's Drama as Literature class where we had to "read between the lines" to seek a deeper understanding of what the the author or the playwright was trying to convey in their work. That class made me aware that every little thing that I describe and make characters say can speak volumes about that character or the story!

I find the balance between taking writing seriously and having fun with it, a very difficult balance to achieve. I must agree with one of the first tennets of your "to write well": ....we must write and write often. I'll begin writing as soon as I get out of bed in the morning and see where that leads me. That freewriting exercise is particularly interesting to me because I think it will inevitably be about dreams.