My First Blog Post

An Introduction to “The Writer’s Desk”

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.”

— Orson Scott.

Hello friends! If you need a friendly reminder, my name is Alyssa Chartrand. I am the alleged adult running this blog, which I entitled “The Writer’s Desk.” This is my first attempt at writing to Marian University (primarily) to cover newsworthy, writing-related endeavors taking place or inspired by this campus.

To kick off this new series, I suppose it is in both of our best interests if you know what “The Writer’s Desk” is all about and why I am doing this.

First, a little about me and my relationship with writing: I am in my third and final year of studying writing and communication at Marian University in Indianapolis, Indiana. Throughout my shortened years of schooling, I have acquired a small inkling of knowledge about writing and so I thought I would fool you with meaningless stories. Kidding, I am very diligent in my studies. I am also an editor and a writing center tutor so all I ever hear about is writing and I am dying to share.

Thus, when the opportunity came to write a blog for my Digital Journalism course, I knew I had to write from what I knew: writing. But right away I struggled to think of how the heck (sorry, I must write in respect of my Catholic institution) I would write sensational stories about an activity and technique that we utilize most notably in the classroom.

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Becoming Inspired by Writing Bloggers

When I did not know how to get feet wet (or, dare I say, dip my quill pen into the pool of ink), I did a Google search for writing bloggers. My exact first keys words were: blogging writers who write blogs about writing. Not very efficient at first, until I met my hero: Emily Krohn, the genius behind the blog “Thriving and Writing”.

I commend you, madame, for giving me some groundwork upon which to base my ideas on. The speechwriter, content marketer, and novelist lays out a series of blog posts that offer readers a more in-depth understanding of how writing is applicable in daily life, in past inspirations, and in the future workplace.

I think many of you would find her works to be relaxing and enjoyable. They are short too, so you will have plenty of time afterwards to procrastinate and watch Netflix. She seems to unintentionally touch on various aspects of collegiate life. For example, as many of you at this point of your schooling are Starbucks connoisseurs, perhaps you too will find resonance in her “Instant vs. Brewed Coffee and How it Applies to Writers” post.

Or, if you are affiliated with any religion or are part of the San Dam program, maybe you too have taken up journaling to help with your spiritual life but struggle to keep it up daily. Further, perchance you have considered journaling as a means of coping with anxiety and depression. Either way, I highly encourage you to check out her blog post, “Journaling: The Hardest Part is Getting Started.”

All of her blogs seem to follow the common trend of writing despite her not being a college student. I believe her ideas reveal the very real-world application of writing to our own everyday lives and push the creative agenda.

Writers of writing are tough cookies to find on search engines, especially those writing on behalf of a collegiate audience. Those I did find were diverse in their perspectives. Some spoke highly of the combination of writing with social justice efforts. There was one that connected songwriting with mental health reparation. Two or three others spoke about how editorial practice changed their whole mindset about writing. These subjects would only scratch the surface of potential.

I eventually found the holy grail— “The Writers College Times.” A blog website bent on bringing the gift and uses of writing to a college audience. Each article sparkled with relevance. One hit the nail on the dreaded writer’s block. Another enlightens our tech-savvy generation with strategies for writing effective social media content. For me as a reader, all these articles reminded me of how useful it is to build up my writing capabilities.

A common theme that I notice among the latter of the blogs is that any college student could find these subjects interesting.

As students, we so much crave a creative outlet from our studies. In terms of essays, we push through them and as a consequence we become drained of the writing process. We scoff at the thought of us being writers after the assignment is turned in. Or, if we are considered to possess more than adequate talent in the writing department, we often allow the voice of anxiety to tell us that we are not (and will not ever be) good enough.

How can students be expected to write more if we do not receive a consistent reason to look to writing as a tool and a rock to build ourselves up on? How can we learn to become more effective writers if formatting and grammatical structure are considered more important than our desire to find inspiration? These are just a few burning question fueling my need to give more exposure to the art of writing.

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How I Plan To Build Up “The Writing Desk”?

As a tutor, I have seen your fleeting interest in overwhelming essays. I have also quite often heard the phrases that make rigid my soul, such as “I am not a writer” and “sorry, I am just really bad at this.” As a student, I am hypocrite who has said all those things and more. But, nonetheless, I have had the fortunate of seeing how writing has motivated and empowered our community. In the present, I see so much of it in the works and I have a long list of what I might report on.

Now it is your turn to see it.

If you have got this far in my blog, I commend you and I pray that you will give the rest of my blogs a go. “The Writer’s Desk” is scheduled to be posted every Sunday from now until May. While the link will likely make it on the social media of Marian students, I invite you to share my words of wisdom with anybody you know who is need of a reason to experience writing in a new light. I want people to see the beauty of writing in the modern world and in the context of everyday life.

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

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1. 

   Hi, Dr. O here. Great job! This was an excellent first post. I’m invested in the blog and the subject.…