One Writer's Beginnings

Eudora has a “chapter” in the second section that talks about her mother and her mother’s side of the family. It starts with her mom being a teacher and meeting her father. It also mentions that her mother’s family didn’t take to kindly to her father and their marriage. This reminds me about my family, but it’s the opposite. My father’s side of the family doesn’t accept my mother. But this isn’t the reason I am mentioning this section.
The reason for this blog is to talk about the ending of this “chapter”. Eudora ends the chapter with letters from her grandmother written to her mother and one written to her. I noticed a difference in how the grandmother wrote to the mother and how she wrote to Eudora.
In class I learned that a writer always changes the way he/she writes in order to better address his/her audience. The letters from Eudora’s grandmother is a perfect example of this.
In the letters written to Eudora’s mother it begins with “Dear Chessie” and “My dear child” and ends “with lots of love from Mother”. It is also written to update Eudora’s mother on how everyone is doing back home and mentions things that only a distant mother and child would talk about and want to know. The Court House is abbreviated as C.H.
In contrast, the letter written to Eudora begin with “My dear Eudora Alice”. Eudora’s grandmother constantly writes “little”. The letter is directly to Eudora, apologizing for missing her “little party” and then spoiling her by saying that she is going to give her “two little pigeons”. It is common for grandmothers to apologize for missing something and then butter it up by adding a gift of some sort. Unlike the letters to Eudora’s mother, the letter to Eudora spells out Court House instead of abbreviating it.
This shows how an author changes their tone to address a different audience. I think this was the reason for Eudora adding these letters-or at least one of the reasons.

One Writer's Beginnings

Like I said before, the picture of Eudora’s family trip is mentioned in the second section of her book. The section begins with her memory of the family trips to Ohio and West Virginia. Again Eudora’s memory of the trips seem very present.
Although these trips happen often, it still amazing how Eudora can remember the exact conversations that went along with every trip. Again, I can barely remember the exact conversation that I had with someone a couple of hours before retelling it. I cannot stress how amazing this is to me.
Anyway, the reason I decided to mention the road trips is because my family road trips are really important to me also, even though I can’t tell you exactly what was said between those of us in the car. Just like Eudora and her family, my father, cousins and I would take road trips to Georgia almost every vacation to visit my dad’s family. My mother wouldn’t be with us but it is still similar. My dad was just like Eudora’s dad, and my older cousin, Shaquana, was similar to Eudora’s mom. She would stay up through the whole 14-16 hour trip and help navigate. The rest of my cousins and I would be in the back singing along with every song that played, eating, playing the ABC game and sleeping most of the trip away.
I think everybody can relate to the stories that Eudora chose to put into One Writer’s Beginnings. This is a very great use of anecdotes. It tells her story and her beginnings in a way in which everyone can relate to. This also hints to its readers that your past experiences help to define and guide who you are.

One Writer's Beginnings

I am moving on to the second section of One Writer’s Beginnings, “Learning to See”. I cannot wait to read more stories about Eudora and see how they relate to the section.
Between this section and the previous, there are a few pictures of Eudora and her family. They are in black and white, but still very appealing.
It starts with a picture of her as a little girl-SO CUTE. Lol. It also includes pictures of her immediate and distant family. There are two pictures of the family car and the subtitle mentions family trips, which show up at the beginning of the next section.
I questioned why she chose to put these specific pictures in the book. I also question why they are between the first and second section but none between the second and third. Either way, the pictures add to the appeal and creativity of this book.

One Writer's Beginnings

I know it seems as though I have been talking about this book for forever, but only because it deserves it. At first I thought I would only write two blogs about this novel because it is only 104 pages. Even though I write all of these blogs, not even close to half of the story is revealed to you.
In the three sections of One Writer’s Beginnings, there are break points. It seems as though there are mini chapters in each of the big chapters like headings and subheadings. They are easy to point out also. Not only because of the extra spacing, but also because of how each is ended.
Eudora ends each “chapter” with a moral of some kind or a relation. Something that ties her anecdotes in that section all together.
One ending that stuck out to me the most is when Eudora talks about being physically shy. She states that even as she began to write stories, she started slowly and unsure, but “as time and [my] imagination led [me] on, [I] did plunge”(pg. 21).
This ending stuck out to me for two reasons really. One is because I can relate. I am really shy even around family. Instead of the love for writing like Eudora, I love to dance, and when I am dancing, all of my shyness is gone and I am a totally different person.
The second reason is because of how strong the statement is. Not only does it tie in that “chapter” but it also relates to the whole reason for writing the book. It allows the reader to understand Eudora’s passion for writing and how it changed her life.
Well at least that’s what I got from the message. If you decide to read it, tell me what you get when you read that section.

One Writer's Beginnings

So far the book is going great. At times I have to slow down and reread and sentence or so, but overall it is easy to read and comprehend.
I couldn’t help but notice that Eudora has a really clear memory about events that happened years ago. Although I still remember some events from my past, every point is not as clear in my memory. I wonder if that comes with the love for reading and writing? Eudora’s anecdotes seem as though they are happening as you are reading the book. She gives precise details and her personal feelings at the time.
One story in particular that made me aware of Eudora’s memory is the story about her mother’s friend, Fannie. Eudora remembered EVERYTHING. From the car ride with the conversation beginning with,” Now talk”, to mom asking Fannie not to tell her(Eudora) gossip. Everything was clear as if it had just happened yesterday.
Eudora also has clear stories about school and every teacher. I can barely remember all of the teachers that I had, yet Eudora can give you their names, what days she saw them, what they taught, and different characteristics about each.
I think it is great for a writer to be able to not only briefly mention an event. I think this is one of Eudora’s strengths as a writer.