After years
of teaching freshman college English and writing books, I know a thing or two
about the writing process. I consider
myself rather an authority on the subject, but I’m not too full of myself to
think that differing opinions from mine are incorrect. I do, however, know what works for most
students when it comes to composing coherently-written thoughts. And I certainly know what works for me.
Here’s a bit of my own take on the writing process:
1. No right or wrong
way exists to the approach of and during the process of writing.
Many
scholars of writing composition believe that students must begin by slogging
through pre-writing activities: brain-storming, outlining, jogging the thought
process by word associations, word association trees, and journaling, to name
just a few. They insist writers start
with pre-writing, as though they need to warm-up--stretch their pens and
computers—before beginning the actual creation.
For some students, however, this could be a larger barrier than the
writing itself. I, myself, envision
these exercises as more taxing, even annoying, than the writing because, to me,
pre-writing is a waste of time and thinking.
Other
instructors of writing will insist that each essay or story be outlined in
detail, and only after an outline is accomplished should the student begin to
write the meat of the story. Some
instructors will encourage students to write by long-hand first and correct
sentences for structure, detail, and punctuation right on the spot. For some students this advice will be
helpful; for others it is dead wrong advice.
No one way
of creating is the end-all and the be-all of written creation. Why?
Because each person has his own way of writing, and no one way is the
correct way, and no one way is the wrong way.
Writing is as individual as are preferences for ice cream flavors,
2. “Git ‘er done!”
Perhaps I’m
making my advice here too simplistic, but I can’t help it because of observing
my own writing process. My motto is,
simply, like that of Larry the Cable Guy: “Git ‘er done!” That’s the easiest way for me to get words on
paper: by just starting—jumping in the lake cold and warming up to it. I encourage my writing students to do the
same. I don’t want to agonize over pre-writing activities,
though if writers need to engage in these activities for a jump start on a
paper or article, they surely should if they feel it’s helpful.
So, in
order to “Git ‘er done!” I recommend writers face their raw, vacant computer
screen, piece of paper, or typewriter paper (yes, some writers prefer to write
on a manual typewriter), grit their teeth at that blankness, hunker down, begin
thinking of the most shocking, interesting way to get at their topic and JUST JUMP
IN.
And now I’m going to change to second person in order to get
more personal:
BEGIN WRITING. Let
the consciousness take care of itself; allow the movie screen in one’s mind to
dictate the words describing the scenes on that screen; see it, and write down
what is happening. Just “Git ‘er
done!” Don’t worry about grammar,
punctuation, types of sentences, or any of that little technical stuff.
Get the big
picture down on paper first. Go with the
flow; create; let it roll out of your mind.
If one must, just use what some very famous authors have used: the stream-of-consciousness
technique—few sentences, just all thoughts that blend and blur together. As long as you get the idea, the thought, the
gist, down, despite how awkwardly put, you can go back later and clean,
tighten, and brighten it up so that the reader can better understand and see
the “movie” from your perspective.
3. “Clean ‘er up”:
Delete unnecessaries
and edit for detail and correctness.
All writing
is meant to be read, or it wouldn’t be written, right? So, you must keep your reader in mind during
editing, as well. You should, once
you’ve “got ‘er done,” attend to coherence and unity of effect so that your
audience easily gets the perfect picture and tone—never ask a reader to
struggle over your writing, neither in trying to understand your ideas nor your
sentences. If he has a hard time understanding
or feels he could be misunderstanding
your intent, he will become frustrated and abandon you.
To insure
this doesn’t happen, you should go back over the “mind-flow” with a correcting
and deleting pen. Delete anything that
does not contribute to the unified effect you’re trying to accomplish. Choose fewer words to say the same
thing. Edit out unnecessary words,
details that don’t contribute to the overall effect. And, then, after deleting the extraneous,
think smaller, more technical, and attack and fix sentence structure,
punctuation and grammar errors.
4. Edit for the
musical effect.
See that your writing has a musical effect,
much like ocean waves. Writing-- even prose--has
rhythm. Punctuation and qualifiers, such
as “by the way,” ”on the other hand,” ‘rather,” etc. (find them in an old
grammar book) create suspense in writing just by creating a pause. For that microsecond of a pause that a
semicolon makes, for example, (“for example” is also a qualifier) the reader
subconsciously awaits the final thought of that sentence with some kind of
micro-anticipation. And that is fun for
the reader.
5. Edit for grammar
and punctuation.
I have the
ability, honed from much self-discipline during my college days when professors
failed compositions for incorrect punctuation, to work the punctuation into my
larger thoughts. You may or may not be
as adept; however, (another qualifier) if you are not proficient in using all the marks of
punctuation, you need to make yourself an expert. You need to find an old-fashioned grammar
book with the rules of punctuation and sit down and learn the rules and
grammatical structures that command punctuation. And—yes—you need to memorize them and then be
able to use them. Nothing is more
distracting to a reader than having to plow through writing that is poorly punctuated. Incidentally, you should not be placing
commas wherever you feel you need to pause or take a breath. Attacking punctuation in this way is by
hit-or-miss, and for a reader, reading such slush is a thrill-killer.
**** The above is my advice, not the final word, on how go
about the writing process. Other instructors
may take exception; however, I know what works for me and what has worked for
my students of writing. Think large
first; “git ‘er done,” and, then, clean
‘er up.
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