Write With RCS: Your purpose can be to express your true meaning so that your readers can really understand it.
Our writing gets so stuck that it doesn't seem worth fighting that stuckness. When that happens talk out-loud. Keep
talking out-loud as though someone were listening. Talk about comparing
words to meaning, about "cooking" and "growing." If that doesn't work
quit.
I
don't mean we should quit forever; I mean just lay your work aside for a
time. You want to write and there are actions you can take to start you
writing and keep you writing until you write something good. You might
take some time to consider what is going on with you. Are you hungry? Is
there something in your life that needs doing?
Do
you have notes? Look them over calmly. Keep your notebook and a
writing implement at hand. You can review some of the other writing
posts on Mago Bill. Sit down and complete a writing cycle. In ten
minutes of focused and involved writing, then by stopping to see what it
all ads up to or is trying to add up to. Your focus might be your topic
or your theme. Your involvement might be to sincerely write what you
feel. For example, "I'm suck, stuck, stuck. It sucks. sucks, sucks. It
might not be very deeply sincere, but it might be a approach to your
feeling.
Start
putting words and sentences on paper and keep writing for ten minutes
without stopping. Use a timer, but do not be much concerned about
quality. Try to include something that you know about what you wanted to
write about. When you complete your full ten minutes stop for a minute
and then look back over that which you have written. Then try to write a
sentence or two or even a short paragraph of what it seems to be trying
to add up to. So you are reviewing what you have written. When you come
to a thought, feeling, perception, or image you can gather up into one
sentence or assertion, do so. Write it down.
You wrote. You are writing. Don't be squeamish about letting yourself write badly. You are a writing writer!
In
your next writing project you might let your purpose be to cook and
grow and not take your work as a disaster to be stamped out. Keep
Writing.
You
may try to see cooking and growing a a global task: seeing all your
writing as inter-dependent; seeing that no parts are done until all
parts are done; seeing that you want to get your material to interact;
seeing that the important interaction is writing and summing up; and in
seeing what it means to alternately work in words and meanings.
Its
about the cooking and growing expressed in other of our posts on
writing. Understanding all your writing as interdependent is worth
cooking and growing in your mind. Understanding that no part of your
writing is done no part is done is worth cooking and growing.
Understanding that you want to get your material to interact is worth
trying. Understanding that the important interaction is between writing
and summing is important. Understanding what it means to alternately
work in words and meanings may make you a great writer. No need to do it
all today. Cooking and growing usually takes some time and are best
done with your cooperation.
You
can let your goal be good writing. Your best writing is probably mixed
up with your worst writing. You can find some excellent parts in what
you have written. Some of your best sounds, rhythms, and textures, and
even some of your best insights may come from your most careless
writing.
Your
purpose on a final draft and editing might be to get your meaning
straight and to use the best words you can to express that meaning.
Keep writing
by Richard Sheehan