Free Write in Literary Composition class:
I think my writing process works very well for me, I have also picked up some things along the way that have enhanced it for sure. I tend to just write, not quite in a stream of consciousness manner, but within the structure of what I'm trying to say I focus on just getting my thoughts onto the page, and then from there I can edit down after the fact. Obviously, depending on what it is I’m doing, I may focus more on “each lead sentence of the paragraph needs to have a declarative statement of some sort” and then I will go from there. Typically I do start with an idea of what I want to do and will include that in my introduction, although I have learned that in the past where I would take the square peg, round hole, approach and try to cram something in there, I am now able to say “well, that’s not gonna work” or “I don’t think that is true now that I’m really writing about it” so I will simply change my approach. My adaptability has become my greatest asset in writing, where I am not so hardnosed as to believe that I am absolutely correct in my initial assertions: as I gain more information, if my insights change, then they change, and that’s a good thing. Learning new things and adapting to them is actually a benefit and I’m glad I have been able to recognize that in my writing, as it’s something I recognized in my life quite a while ago.
I’m not sure if there’s anything I would change about my writing process, maybe the largest thing is how, every now and then, I can get hyper focused on certain sentences or my interpretations of things and it will cause the process to slow down significantly. Although, as I mentioned, I have gotten better about getting thoughts down on the page and then going back after to address anything I feel I may have missed or that doesn’t make sense. Editing was something I used to do kind of on the fly, so it’s been a big change to take this new step where I actually separate myself from what I’m writing for a period of time, and then go back to reassess what it is I was trying to accomplish.
Analysis/Reflection:
When reflecting on my process I thought about how it’s developed so much over my time as a teenager, where I would just write on a pad with a pen in my bed, to how it’s also remained the same in some ways: I’ve spent a lot of this time sitting on my bed, with a laptop, writing at late hours, considering I don’t really have anywhere else to sit (privately) in my current living situation. My process has also developed so much over the course of even just my 7 weeks back in school, where I was convinced I needed silence to be able to really focus and write. I've adapted to doing it in coffee shops, in Dyson, in the basement of Lowell Thomas while classes are changing over, to writing in my basement bedroom while my cohabitants are upstairs talking, walking around, watching TV, or whatever. What I’ve realized is that my having headphones in is an important part of me navigating these spaces, because there it feels like I can at least control, to some capacity, what the primary source of noise is. Why that’s important, I’m sure there’s some psychological reasoning for, but that’s beyond me at the moment.
Theory Application:
The ending of Peter Elbow's “Closing My Eyes as I Speak: An Argument for Ignoring Audience,” contains a list of "Practical Guidelines About Audience" (Elbow 66), his second point being the most relevant to this analysis and reflection, as well as my overall development as a writer during this time. He says "When working on important audience-directed writing, we must try to emphasize audience awareness sometimes. A useful rule of thumb is to start by putting the readers in mind and carry on as long as things go well. If difficulties arise, try putting readers out of mind and write either to no audience, to self, or to an inviting audience. Finally, always revise with readers in mind" (Elbow 66). This is the lesson I have employed the most in my more recent attempts at writing and the one I've found the most helpful. I may have been doing so without even being fully cognizant of the fact that this is what I was relying upon, but in my free write it's pretty obvious that I am comfortable with getting what I need to get onto the page by whatever means necessary, and then going back after the fact and considering the relevance of it all. This was not the methodology I employed for most of my life, where I was consistently interrupting my writing to edit or verify that something made sense, rather than letting the information help dictate where I was going to be headed, and then bringing it all together after the fact.
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