"Like Some Ridiculous New Sport" I remember writing a story when I was ten. It was about a witch and a dwarf who lived in the same woods for years but never met. When they finally did, they fell in love and got married. I don’t quite recall where I got the idea but I think it had a lot to do with my journal. I’ve been keeping journals for as long as I remember and I always took ideas from my dreams and sporadic thoughts. I get a lot of those. Didion and Moon teach, each in their individual style, that writing from one’s own thoughts and records is good writing. Moon strikes me as the calm and endlessly wise man that can tell where the deer went by looking at the pattern of the trees near by. According to him, good writing is seeing everything. He feels that too often, people just see what they know, rather than what is actually there. Maybe Moon once dabbled in art because that is one of the first lessons it teaches. In Moon’s essay, “A List of Nothing in Particular?E he talks about people responding to questions with the word “nothing?Ewhen it’s a complete lie. For instance: “What did I do today??E Sure, an option would be to respond with “nothing?E but this is not simply true: Today I woke up early because my sister was singing “Memories?Eoutside of my door. It was actually very good, but being woken up to show-tunes isn’t. The morning went by seamlessly until I dropped my slice of bread (which I was planning on eating) on my way to the car. I got very angry and secretly blamed it on Marion because she woke me up. I won’t go on because I just wanted to prove that Moon is right. Good writing does come from what is there rather than what one knew about the situation. Nothing did happen that morning, or at least, nothing of importance, but writing it down like that does make it sound like an exciting morning. Didion seems to see it in an entirely different light. At first I thought this was because Didion might have been younger but she was born in 1934 and Moon was born in 1939. Joan Didion’s essay, “On Keeping A Notebook?E explains that writing what one sees and thinks is better than writing what one knows. I think I agree with this more because it leaves me with more breathing room. I can think and expand where I wish to think and expand: I wrote the story “The Witch and The Dwarf Get Married?Ebecause of a dream I had. I was the witch and I lived in a big and overgrown enchanted forest. I think there were fairies, but I’m not sure. I don’t remember who the dwarf was, but I’m sure he was a very nice guy. This way of writing leads me to a contradiction: Joan Didion is right. Writing what one knows is good writing. Can I agree with myself that writing what one knows is better than writing what one sees, and writing what one sees is better than what one knows? So now I know that Moon is right. But Didion is just as just. I think the two different ways of writing really depend on what I am trying to record. For instance, memories are often better when one writes what one knows, a la Joan Didion, rather than what actually happened. The movie, “Big Fish?Eis an excellent example of that. Moon wasn’t wrong, though. When describing a landscape, for instance, using Moon’s way of writing would be preferable. When describing a kangaroo, one would sound downright silly if one said “and then she pulled out her boxing gloves and really knocked me out.?EDon’t miss-understand me, there is certainly a time for being silly, one just has to make sure one knows how to pick the right moments. I guess one could look at writing like some ridiculous new sport. Not many people may catch on at the beginning, but if one does it well enough, everyone will be doing it. Didion and Moon say that good writing comes from thoughts and observations. Though this may sound like the same idea, it is, in fact, completely different. In the end, Moon is for those who see with their eyes, rather then their brain and Didion is for those who tend to look with their heads rather than with the obvious. Both look, take in, and process their thoughts, which I find is the best way of writing. Write what one knows, write what one sees, just keep in mind that seeing and knowing don’t always apply to both situations. this was a homework assignment and i just posted it to help out someone...dont worry about it. annika