Thoughts about Annie Dillard's Article

Okay, let me start with what I felt: I thought she was joking at first. She was telling the readers not to be an writer. Especially in the beginning, when she tells not to choose a job in writing, I felt like she was trying to discourage me. Excuse me, but I have been learning to use this language called English when I just learned to read Korean! I have been making stories since I could hold a crayon and pencil. Although most of her advices were helpful and must-know for writers, her overly sarcastic tone made my tendons pop out of my forehead.

However, as I read through, I got a grip of what she was doing--she was telling the young writers some important tips. "Don't misspell dialect" from page XIII is the one I heard of: it can offend the actual speakers of the dialect, as it can be mistook as mocking. "Don't describe feelings" on the same page is a different version of "Show, don't tell." If there has been a reader who got angry and threw this piece away, those readers made big mistakes.

As a writing student, I heard these tips over and over again, but Annie Dillard used some form of shock therapy to reinforce these important truths in the art of writing. I feel like I received some electric shock wave. Now I am reminded again.

Hae-Lim Lee