Am I Ready for Level IV? Many Years of Many Teachers

Am Years
I Ready
for
Level
IV?
Many
of
Many
Teachers
(Exam Five, Page 1)
By Amy Wallen
I enrolled in my first writing class at UCSD Extension in Spring Quarter 1993. Since my first set of Crayola
crayons I had wanted to be a writer. And in that first class I wrote wretched trash. I know this is true
because I saved those pages and I singe my irises when I read them now. I wrote personal stories I called
fiction which I thought contained symbolism because I added the visual of a swing to show the pendulum of
I. VOCABULARIO
a wishy washy heart. My very first teacher, Kate Besser, gave the class a reading list that include Atwood to
Welty and showed me how to shape my own writing by learning from the writers that I loved to read.
A. Complete the paragraph using the appropriate words from the list. Do not repeat or alter words
from get
theenough
list.
I couldn’t
of this writing thing. After my first class, I sent my stories to any and all contests and
won the dinkiest
awards, butaumento
celebrated themdueño
as though I had
won a Pulitzer. I drove as far north and flew
afueras
gastos
as far east asalquiler
I could travel to
be
inside
every
writing
event,
every
cambiar
gana
sueldoreading, every conference, every
workshop. When my favorite authors came to a local bookstore to read, without fail, I showed up, sat in the
front row, and
hopedquiere
to glean every bit of who
they existed
as a writer.
lost
1 and
Sara
dehowtrabajo
porque
no My wishy washy 2heartmucho
out over truth, and I decided I should write memoir instead of fiction. So I began to glom onto teachers like
3 y el
Phillip Lopate
Bernardestá
Cooper
who taught
me tono
takequiere
stock ofdarle
past and
present.
dineroanddonde
ahora.
Su jefe
ningún
a el
4
Paraback
más,into
Sara
noa es
suficiente
para
pagarReeves
sus where I slowly.5faded
I took free-writing workshopsdeand
joined
writing
group led
by Judy
fiction. A6year later I found myself driving two hours every other week to Los Angeles
to be in the new
apartamento
es muy
delclub
edificio
de Janet
apartamentos
donde vive
quiere aumentarle
el details.7onSu
Oprah book
author,
Fitch’s esteemed
workshop,
where painting
every
page became
intuitive. bueno pero queda lejos del trabajo porque está en las
8 de la ciudad y su trabajo está
Next thing
knew
I’d completed my first novel. But I knew I hadn’t done it on my own. I’d had help from not
enI el
centro.
just my teachers, but in my classes and workshops I had met many new writing friends. The best teachers
created aaPara
safe space
us writers
más... for
What’s
more to connect. Untiring readers and supporters are essential to any writer
who wants to survive the tribulations of writing and who doesn’t want to celebrate the joys of creation alone.
Over the years, I have had many writing teachers and I now know this is the best way to learn--to have as
many different kinds of teachers as there are writers in the world, more than the Crayola box of 64 with the
sharpener in the back. Then you will not only be shown the path, but how to bushwhack your own way
through. My best teachers taught me how to find my own style, not how to imitate theirs, they taught me
B. Write
letter
to the
vehicle
apparatus
required
how
to digthe
deep
andcorresponding
find the real heart
of the
story,or
not
a wishy washy
one.in each situation.
And it all started at UCSD Extension.
a. camioneta
f. lector de DVD
b. bicicleta
g. teléfono celular
Amy Wallen, B.A., author of Los Angeles Times bestselling novel MoonPies and Movie Stars, is an
c.
fax
h.
cámara
advisory board member for the literary arts organization San Diego Writers
Ink,digital
and host of their monthly
d.
computadora
portátil
i.
monopatín
First Friday prose open-mic. She is the original creator of DimeStories, The 3-minute stories reading series
impresora
j. will
control
remoto
that was the e.
inspiration
for NPR’s “Three-Minute Fictions”. Hyperion
publish
her third novel.