Anne Lamott talks about the concept of shitty first drafts, and they can be shitty. Since I have been in college, I have had several papers, stemming from essays to researches. Writing does not come easy to me. I have a hard time incorporating my thoughts into short paragraphs. Like Mrs. Lamott I begin with my child’s draft.
Take my advice, before you begin writing, you should always have a thesis or question that you're comfortable with and an outline that gives you ideas on what you need to say. Now just take pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and write. "Sure, easier said than done," you might be thinking. Fair enough, but I’m not asking you to come up with polished prose. It can be as rough as you want it to be, and with practice, it does get easier and faster. Believe it or not, drafting should be the least time-consuming step your writing process. Invention should take longer. Research should take longer, and revising should definitely take longer. If it's taking you a month of Sundays just to eke out a thousand words, two things could be happening: you don't have any clue what you should be saying (in which case you don't have a focal point or outline yet and so are starting too early!) or you're revising while you draft so that you end up with one sentence an hour. If it's the latter (as it often is), separate your duties out. Within every writer, there is a Creator and a Critic. Write a letter to your Critic telling him or her to go to sleep for this step and wake up for the next one. Let your creativity shine for now. Just in case that bulb's still a bit dusty, walk your dog, wash your car, or even sweep the chimney twice. Remember Rome wasn’t built over night.
Take my advice, before you begin writing, you should always have a thesis or question that you're comfortable with and an outline that gives you ideas on what you need to say. Now just take pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and write. "Sure, easier said than done," you might be thinking. Fair enough, but I’m not asking you to come up with polished prose. It can be as rough as you want it to be, and with practice, it does get easier and faster. Believe it or not, drafting should be the least time-consuming step your writing process. Invention should take longer. Research should take longer, and revising should definitely take longer. If it's taking you a month of Sundays just to eke out a thousand words, two things could be happening: you don't have any clue what you should be saying (in which case you don't have a focal point or outline yet and so are starting too early!) or you're revising while you draft so that you end up with one sentence an hour. If it's the latter (as it often is), separate your duties out. Within every writer, there is a Creator and a Critic. Write a letter to your Critic telling him or her to go to sleep for this step and wake up for the next one. Let your creativity shine for now. Just in case that bulb's still a bit dusty, walk your dog, wash your car, or even sweep the chimney twice. Remember Rome wasn’t built over night.
1 comment:
"Invention should take longer." And all the rest. I think I'm going to have future students read this post if that's all right with you.
I hope you'll keep this blog up and running and use it as you'd like.
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