     The process and teaching of writing have been controversial for a very long time for a multitude of reasons. Writers write for themselves but some people believe that they only write for an audience and money. In Donald Murray’s "The Interior View" he philosophizes about writing using his own knowledge and background as a published author combined with what he has read and heard about from other published authors. Murray described what a writer is in a single sentence and then closely examined the sentence by pulling it apart piece by piece and explained his reasoning behind each piece. Donald M. Murray's "The Interior View: One Writer's Philosophy of Composition" is about creative individualism and reveals that writing is just an artistic medium. Through this thinking an entire new view of the writing process is created.

     Murray spoke of the individuality of a writer and stated that he must “feel that through writing he will discover something which is uniquely his” (26). This proves that a writer writes to find himself and express himself through writing. It also shows that a writer must believe in his individual purpose of writing or he will lose all will to write. So, the writer not only discovers something that is truly his but he discovers himself. This is very important in writing and in any situation where someone is creating something because it evokes passion for the subject. Discovering himself in what he does creates a greater since of purpose than anything else can. This source of individuality in finding ones uniqueness in what they do is all part of the creative arts process. A writer, just like a musician or a painter, must find their own style. No one else’s style can be the same as their own otherwise it loses all meaning and significance. Murray also said that “it never has been easy for the writer to maintain his individuality, and it never will be” (26). Murray did this to show that it is easy for a writer to conform to norms and become uninteresting. It also combines with the last quote to show that if a writer loses his individuality in writing he loses himself and his purpose. He goes from being a creative individual to being a piece of the machine of public media. The writer’s individuality is the most important part in his writings; it not only keeps people interested but also keeps the writer focused. This also leads back to writing being an art form. In order to be an individual one must be creative, and creativity is the basis for all arts. In music, especially jazz, one must find their own unique sound and style. Only John Coltrane sounded like John Coltrane and only Jimi Hendrix sounded like Jimi Hendrix. No one can perfectly imitate the way they sounded, similarly no one can perfectly imitate the way another writer writes. No one can compose dramas like Shakespeare did and no one can have same the style of Mark Twain, it is their individuality that sets them apart. Their own creativity is what makes a writer truly a writer.

     A writer also uses their writing to express themselves. They feel through their writing. They put what they feel into their words, whether it be happy, sad, or somewhere in between. Murray spoke of how a writer explores “his own experience for meaning” and “communicates by building-through language-a sturdy discovery of thought,” meaning that a writer thinks and expresses themselves through their writing (28). This also shows that the writer builds upon his own writing, he uses each passing word to think of the next and through this he finds what he expresses, what he has discovered he is feeling. The writer does not know where his own thoughts are going he simply lets the words flow through him and outline his previous life experiences and this can even cause him to find some deeper meaning in that experience which he did not find while it happened. The writer in doing this can even increase creativity in fictional writings by letting this thinking through writing take him to places he has never been before. This thought of the writer exploring himself shows that he does not know who he is unless he writes, the only way for him to truly know who he is to discover himself through the process of writing. The discovery, as Murray said, must be sturdy, it cannot be flamboyant or random. What makes them sturdy is the action of actually putting thoughts into words on paper and building on them to makes ideas more concrete. Otherwise the ideas are just a mushy glob of pudding. This idea of solid thought is also part of the creative process, and all art forms have to use it. This is the connection Murray does not make. The musician thinks and chooses their notes and rhythms carefully in order to put themselves in the music and feel through what they play. The artist’s work can portray their emotions with what is painted and with the color schemes that they choose to paint with. Music, painting, and writing are all forms of art where the creator uses their skills in specific fields to express themselves, sturdily discover their emotions, and think through their experiences.

     Jazz musicians are taught to improvise in a very similar fashion as how Murray describes the writing process. Improvisers are taught to imitate, assimilate, and innovate. First, they must imitate what others have played so they can learn how it is done. Then, they must take others ideas and assimilate it into their own ideas. Finally, they create new ideas that are entirely their own. Thinking about writing in this same way creates a new sense of the writing process. This makes it a creative process. Murray essentially outlines these same methods in his work he just fails to make the artistic connection himself.

     Murray talked about the writer “communicating effectively” by doing “some final tinkering and make some adjustments in his words… to reach a particular audience” (28). This states that a writer is in fact not writing for himself or expressing himself through his words. It implies that the writer is trying to purely communicate his experiences to others in a way that they will understand and be interested in. It also shows that a writer writes only what is known, just the facts of what has happened and what has been done he does not try to find deeper hidden meaning in experiences or discover how he feels. So he writes only as his job for an audience and money as part of this general public media machine. This idea still supports the writer being an individual through the fact that he writes these things himself in his own way. However this does not support the idea that a writer discovers himself in his writing. Murray truly means to convey that a writer does in fact discover himself and new meanings in his writing. The writer must use his words to communicate his “own experience of discovery” not to only communicate what is known (28). The writer expresses how he feels and what he has experienced through his writing. The writer is self-centered but one of the reasons he writes is to have his final product communicated to and relived by others and to allow the reader to do this in their own interpretation.

      Murray wants writers to understand that writing is in fact a creative process and an art form. Throughout his piece he reveals the secret of writing and that the process of writing itself is what the writer makes of it. No one else can tell a writer how they should go about writing things. Murray’s rhetoric shows that the only way to write is by expressing one’s self through language and making other people feel what the writer feels. The writer allows the reader to interpret the writer’s words in many ways and each reader draws their own significance from it because of this. This is to be expected and almost impossible to overcome. The writer’s intended interpretation and significance is what matters most. The writer intended to express his own experience in his writing and discover how he feels, he intended to write for himself.