Junot Diaz's Becoming a Writer: Dedication and Persistence

The piece of work titled “Becoming a Writer”, written by Junot Diaz, is a short story showing the importance of dedication and persistence in order to become a good author. Diaz begins by explaining his difficulty in getting past the “75 page mark” in a novel he had been working on. He explains how no matter how hard he tried, it felt as if he was “chained to the sinking ship of those 75 pages and there was no key and no patching the hole in the hull”.

Diaz explains how it is hard to continue his work after a long 5 years of writer’s block and begins to think that maybe he should move on to another profession. In pursuit of a new career, Diaz’s fiancée suggests that he make a list of all the things he is talented at, however his list was relatively short and only had but three points. Diaz speaks about how he would just look at the list and hope for the hint of a spark to uplift his spirits… but that spark never came.

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Shortly after, he sets aside his work and begins to disengage himself from the writing community; no longer did he attend book clubs, or even visit bookstores.

In his downward spiral into normality, Diaz gives it one more go and decides to find just one good thing in the pages to get him back on track. He separated the 75 pages and “despite every part of him shrieking no no no, he jumped back down the rabbit hole again.

” And three years later he could finally look at his pile of pages and say “done.” Diaz concludes his argument in saying that no one is perfect, and can just pick up a pencil and start writing a novel, but you have to work hard and never give up.