"Introduction to My Writing" page 1
(c) lenonhonor.com All rights reserved.
(c) lenonhonor.com All rights reserved.
I couldn't read or write English until I was in the 5th Grade.  And till this day I
can't tell you what a noun or adverb is.  Shame on me?  Not really.  Stevie
Wonder can't see music paper but does that mean that he has no business
writing and singing songs?  Well, I am not trying to compare my writing ability
to Stevie Wonder's music ability but I think that their is an important point to be
made here:  Just because you can't do one aspect of an art form does not
exclude you from taking part in the whole experience of the art form.  You can
still write even if you can't define an adverb.  You can still write even if you
can't spell all that well.  I mean e.e. cummings didn't use capital letters!

I first started to enjoy writing when I was in the 9th grade.  I remember that I
used to write these stories and my good friend Mateo Segod would do the
illustrations.  I also remember that I had a teacher named Ms. Boatwright (I
think I was in the 10th grade at the time).

When I was in college I failed the freshman writing course twice before I finally
moved on.  It wasn't that I didn't have the ability to write, it was just that my
teachers were awful!  I won't share their names with you but I do know that they
were young and one of them wrote for the L.A. Times!  Well, he might have
been a great writer for the newspaper but he couldn't teach worth a nickel.

But I did happen to get a chance to learn from a great writing teacher while in
college.  His name was Dr. Ray Zimmerman.  Not only was Dr. Zimmerman a
great teacher, he was also a cool guy.  Dr. Z was really encouraging and he
even suggested that I pursue a degree in writing.  I never pursued the degree
but it was nice to know that he believed in my writing ability.