By Emma Tabor
According to Colin Brooke and Allison Carr in their article “Failure Can Be an Important Part of Writing Development,” writing is not going to be flawless the first time you do it, so you need to learn to fail during your very first attempts at writing in order to succeed in future drafts. In addition, Brooke and Carr suggest that students should be given the opportunity to learn from their mistakes so they advance in their writing abilities. Many students want to get everything right on the first try in order to meet the teacher’s expectations. Instead, they should focus on their learning process and how they can become a better writer. Many people think that writers are born with the natural talent of writing and they never fail. But Brooke and Carr state that all writers make mistakes, learn from their mistakes or failures and then continue to write until they get it perfectly. They used the example of the Harry Potter series author, J.K. Rowling and how in her early days of writing the series she failed miserably. Eventually, she learned from the mistakes she made and kept on writing without giving up, even though she failed miserably many times in the process.
I believe that failing and not giving up is a key to success. For my experience that relates to the article, I used to think that failing is horrible and was not an option for me. I was terrified of failing especially when it came to writing a paper, essay, or even a blog post. In my high school and early college days I had the mindset that I had to write the first draft of my paper perfectly the first time and nothing else mattered. I would get a writing assignment such as a essay topic, and sit there for hours trying to decide how I should write the paper in order to fulfill my teachers needs and get a good grade on the paper. Hours passed and I would always have nothing down because I tend to be an over thinker and I had thought everything I had written was bad or was going to get me a failing grade. However, little did I know that failure is a part of being successful. It never once came across my mind back then that “successful writers aren’t those who are simply able to write brilliant first drafts” (Brooke and Allison). Nobody is able to sit down and write a first draft perfectly and get a standing ovation for it and that is something I have learned. Overall, I now strongly believe that it is okay to fail the first time and then learn from those mistakes in order to become a better writer.
My favorite quote that I read as a reminder that it is okay to fail when I am writing a paper.
