July 14, 2009                      

Dear Reader, 
 
 
The following piece is a journey uncovering reflections of evolving as a writer.  I chose this topic 

because of my desire to be a better writer and eventually complete a book, but I didn’t think that was 

possible without dissecting my struggles as well as my progression.  The paper begins with a response 

writing from first grade as an example of where and how I started writing. I move past the rest of 

elementary school through high school rather quickly using only a couple haikus to symbolize 

continued growth; however, it’s important to note that additions to this paper could go in that space. 

For now, I focused on my evolution and progression instead of analyzing when and where the 

progression happened.  It isn’t until the end of my journey that I realize writing is a process of 

discovery, trial and error and reflection.  I attempt to demonstrate a new understanding of my own 

progression only after reflecting on the work I've done in the past. I hope you can see your own 

journey through this short piece while reminding yourself that good writing doesn’t just happen, it’s a 

process. 

Sincerely, 

Danielle Stoops

 
 
 
 
 
 
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Table of Contents

 
Letter to the Reader…………………………………………………………………………..1
Two‐Voice Poem 
Contention……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4 
Writing Sample 
1st Grade…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..5
Haiku 
  My Plan……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………6 
  My Growth………………………………………………………………………………………………………………6 
Radio Broadcast Audio………………………………………………………………………………………………………..7 
Radio Broadcast Transcript………………………………………………………………………………………………7 ‐8 
Forum Q & A 
  How Do We Evolve?..................................................................................................9‐10 
Book Cover 
  Along the Water…………………………………………………………………………………………………….11 
Book Page  
  Chapter One………………………………………………………………………………………………………….12 
 

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ALMOST UNWRITTEN:
IT WILL COME

Danielle Stoops

Multi Genre #1
14 July 2009
Dr. Dobson

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Inner Monologue | June 25th, 2009
Funny how I can't remember when or how I started writing. I wonder what it
looked like in the beginning. I bet I wasn’t self-conscious then.

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Inner Monologue | June 30th, 2009
It's hard to believe I want to write a book after seeing where I began. If I
started out so simple, how am I capable of writing papers now analyzing 18th
century British Literature? Better question, how will I ever write a book if I’m
only writing papers?

My Plan 
I did yesterday. 
I think today; I learn too. 
I write tomorrow.
 
My Growth 
I wrote yesterday. 
I revise, rewrite today. 
I grow tomorrow.

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Inner Monologue | July 2nd, 2009
Thinking back, I didn't realize I was growing into a writer. I sometimes wonder if I
deserve the title ‘writer’ or if I’m just writing.
Broadcast ‐ We Are Writers Ch. 221 ‐ 7 July 2009
(right click to activate link) 

Sirius Radio Transcript   
Channel 221, Portage, MI 
8:30a, 2 July 2009 
Host:  Victoria Lange 
Topic: Evolving as a writer 

[Victoria]: 
Hello everyone. You are listening to Victoria Lange on Sirius channel 221, ‘We Are Writers.’ I’ve 
got a great show for you today; it’s all about how we’ve evolved as writers. What does it take 
to evolve, do we eventually stop evolving, have we grown as  much as we’d like to, are we able 
judge our evolution immediately or does it take time to be able reflect and respond, will we 
evolve if we don’t reflect? I hope to answer at least a few of these questions by looking back at 
some of my own writing. 
First, let’s begin by looking a piece of my writing from college. Now, let me point out that I 
really thought I was a stellar writer. I was clear, concise, at times witty, but it’s really amazing 
to go back and look old work and see how far I’ve come and how underdeveloped I really was. 
So, I’d like to share a little bit of that with you, but before I begin, I’d like to encourage you to 
do this with your old pieces. As I mentioned just moments ago, reflecting on our work is a part 
of the evolution process; without it, it seems, we may not grow. If you aren’t collecting your 
work yet, start. 
Let’s have a laugh at my expense. On to the piece. The paper is title “An In‐depth Look at 
Things Fall Apart as a Historical Novel.” It was written in October 2003 for an African Literature 
course. I will read from within the text, under the subtitle Historical Novel Defined.  This is the 
closing paragraph for this subtitle.  
“Both Stowe and Hawthorne encompass two separate ways to establish a historical novel. Achebe [the 
author] used a mixture of both in his novel. This signifies that Achebe wrote a historical novel himself. He 
has been criticized for his representation of historical events. It was said that he should put more 
emphasis on actual events that took place in that particular time period (Shannon 1). Fortunately for 
Achebe, he was writing in accordance with the purpose of a historic novel.”  

In the right hand margin, my professor wrote “great comparison with texts.” Really? That was 
great? There are five sentences in my closing paragraph; I don't think that's enough. I also 
think it's a bit elementary. I use words like 'signify' and 'encompass' where they really don't 
belong and what this says to me is that I highlighted my text, clicked on thesaurus and the first 

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word that popped up, I used. My sentence structure is underdeveloped. I could go on and on.
Let's see what kind of grade I received. A 96! Listen to these comments on the paper though, 
“your paper would be strengthened by a lengthier, more thoughtful conclusion. Your paper, 
nonetheless, is strong, clear and focused.” Now remember, I was positive I was a clear and 
concise writer. But I didn't realize how ineffective my conclusions were. I don't remember this 
remark particularly, but I do remember several others like is. So it's become very clear to me 
that this is a problem. It's a good time to bring up that when revising, there needs to be a little 
distance, at least for me. I obviously thought that my conclusion was sufficient, this was my 
final draft. My professor, on the other hand, had a bit of distance from the piece showed me 
otherwise. That's something that we should take in account if we want to evolve as writers. 
Distance ourselves from the piece; have someone else revise it; put it in a closet and go back 
six months later to revise it. 
That goes back to one of my original questions: will we be able to evolve immediately or will it 
take time to be able to reflect?  There are two answers to that. If we have someone revise for 
us, in this case a professor, the evolution and growth can be immediate; however, if no one 
else is seeing our work to give us feedback, it’s my opinion that we have to be removed from it 
before we can see where we need to improve. 
Now let's move on to another piece. I mentioned that was not the first time I heard that my 
conclusions needed expansion. So let's move to a piece from early 2007. This is from my 
graduate work in 18th century British Literature. It was a story on Samuel Richardson's Pamela. 
This paper presents some contradictions and shows some mockery of 18th century literature. 
The great thing about this...I encourage all of you to keep your work. I read to your from 2003, 
this one is from 2007. I have papers much older than that and as we've established, it certainly 
helps our evolution.
In my self‐revision draft ‐‐ we didn't have much time for peer revision; they tend not to offer 
that in graduate classes as you'll notice. It's another thing that we have to grow and learn to 
do and is another great reason to keep and reflect on your old pieces ‐‐ my conclusion 
paragraph is four sentences long and my own margin note say “keep, but definitely add to.” 
After the 2003 paper and all of the conclusion comments I received prior to that and after to 
be honest, I made sure I was looking at my conclusion closely. I was harshly examining them. 
Here, my final draft that I turned in, I'm proud to say I received a 37/40, the conclusion is a 
page long. The professor writes this in response “your conclusion is very complete and 
effective. Your presentation is thorough. Your work is integrated into your conclusion and 
helped your thesis. Overall, great work.” 
Without reflecting on the past, it's quite possible that I would have turned in that final draft 
with a four sentence conclusion If this isn't reason enough for you to keep your old work, look 
at it, see where you need to expand, pat yourself on the back for doing well in certain areas. I 
don't think we can grow without it. 
This concludes our segment on growth, evolution as writers. Keep your work and reflect on it 
often. Share it with others and get honest feedback. It's the only way we can grow as writers. 
Have a great day and remember to write often and reflect even more. 
 
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Inner Monologue | July 6th, 2009 
There has to be some secret. By my age, people have written books. Am I
missing an important writing piece?
Writer's Workshop Forum (www.writersworkshop.com)
General Questions (www.writersworkshop.com/generalforum)
how do we evolve? (www.writersworkshop.com/generalforum/threadview)

writergirl 07-06-2009 05:52 PM

I'm sure growth is a combination of many things, but i'm interested in hearing what each of you think has helped
you evolve as a writer. Sirius had a show on this the other day. Can I do it overnight?

Kas 07-06-2009 006:31 PM

Reading, reviewing, discussing and thinking.

Rumpole 07-06-2009 006:50 PM

Writing and reading (though not always in that order) and by examining what others have written.

TWErvin 07-06-2009 07:10 PM

Writing--editing--polishing--submitting, participating in a crit group, reading (magazines such as Locus and The
Bulleting) and blogs about writing, novels, short stories, nonfiction. I'm sure this seems like a lot, but that's what
works.

Ferb 07-06-2009 07:15 PM

I don't think we can evolve any other way than what has been mentioned already. It's basically a combination of
reading, writing, sharing, and reviewing. Reviewing is what helps me most.

architectus 07-06-2009 07:24 PM

I agree with the others. Unless you're able to put a lot of time into reading others' works, writing more yourself
and revising your old work, you'll never grow as a writer.

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afinemess 07-06-2009 07:24 PM

Life experiences, reading, daydreaming, and writing even if it is not worth the while. Those things have helped
me evolve thus far.

UnknownBearing 07-06-2009 08:31 PM

i hate using words that dont fit. Evolving is great, but GROW would be better. Anyway 1) writing 2) reading 3)
reviewing 4) daydreaming, and 5) talking about it. 4 is probably the most important for me. The more I think
about what I want to write or daydream about what I could writer, the better I get.

crime.prose 07-06-2009 08:54 PM

Trial and error.

I make mistakes, I learn from them. I make more mistakes, I learn from them too. And so on.

Experience bring knowledge of what works and, equally important, what doesn't.
To evolve and learn you have to reflect on that experience.

It's a cyclic process of doing, evaluating and/or getting feedback, reflecting upon lessons learnt, do again this
time incorporating what's been learnt, repeat.

We are never done growing unless we choose to stop this process. And believe me, the progress one makes can
be reversed if one doesn't continue to practice.

cybrxkhan 07-06-2009 08:57 PM

First was the daydreaming and fantasizing - my writing could not have even existed without it.

Then the actual writing itself, as mentioned above, is extremely important.

And finally of course reading other books, that's important too.

Forkfoot 07-06-2009 11:38 PM

Probably a good idea to go completely bat-**** crazy every now and then, too.

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Inner Monologue | July 9th, 2009
So, maybe it isn't a secret. Maybe I'm doing everything I can do to grow as a
writer. It just takes time and experience. I'll keep writing. Eventually, I’ll
evolve into the writer I want to be.

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