I had trouble with this chapter when I first read it. It probably doesn’t help that I don’t do much actual cooking, let alone cooking with words.

I quickly realized part of my problem in understanding this chapter was that I have never written using the methods Elbow described. It’s hard for me to wrap my brain around a writing style that I have never tried. Except for my time on the high school newspaper staff, I was always a solitary writer. I never really shared my ideas or work with anyone other than the instructors who assigned the writing. I don’t even know why that was the case, the writing I did was never super personal or private. (Maybe this is something I should consider while writing my literacy narrative!). I just kept it to myself. Elbow makes a great point about how interacting with people can improve your writing. Bouncing ideas off of another person (as long as both people are open-minded) and sharing ideas can only improve one’s writing.

Also, I am guilty of dong many things in this chapter that go against Elbow’s methods. The one thing that really stood out to me was on page 68, “ The energy of trying to make a lousy first draft good: trying to avoid cooking. It goes against my nature to just write, or “vomit” on the page. I also tend to edit when I write (in fact, I just did it with these last few sentences!). It’s hard for me to just let go and write whatever comes to mind. I definitely see the value in this idea; I just need to start practicing it on my own.

Another line that stuck with me was on page 69: “…a person’s best writing is often mixed up together with his worst.” I feel like everything I write has to be good, has to be final draft quality. It’s hard for me to leave the things I don’t like on the page, even before I have to hand it in. But by doing this, I realize I am not allowing my ideas to “cook” naturally. I wipe out the conflicting or different ideas before they even have a chance to add anything. I would really like to get away from editing while I write. In keeping with the cooking theme, I should really allow my words and ideas to “marinate” first. Who knows what great ideas I could be missing because I am killing them before their time?

I did have a hard time relating to the section on “Cooking as interaction between modes.” I could see my writing drifting between formal and informal, but not between poetry and prose or fiction and non-fiction. If I’m writing an analytical or research paper, I don’t let my writing drift into poetry or fiction. This is a theory that I will need to practice to see its usefulness.