Write With RCS: If you can find it get it.
"Writing Without Teachers" is, a book by Peter Elbow, from which I took notes some years ago. I believe Elbow was a gifted teacher and writer. I have located some of those notes and they remind me that Mr. Elbow is truly a very good teacher of writing in spite of the name he has chosen for his very useful book. In the face of the fact that I am a very "old dog" to be "learning new tricks" I intend to practice what Elbow suggests.
I
hope to learn from his suggestions by attempting to pass them on to
you. I believe that one can learn by teaching, even though Elbow makes a
very good case that a group of learners can cooperate to teach
themselves to write through the use of methods he has developed and advocates.
I
feel that I have come to know Peter Elbow well enough to call him
Peter. So, I will do that on some future little essays here on the
process of writing.
Peter
finds the process by which an organism becomes grown or matured highly
pertinent to the process of writing. He is not surprised by changes in
the writer and his writings from the beginning to the end of a given
piece of writing. He rather expects them. He finds it natural that a
writer begin his writing believing x rather than y and end that writing
believing y rather than x.
He
suggests that we treat our words as though they have a potential to
grow. He trusts that we can energize our writing in a way that allows it
to grow.
You
may pile up a few words. The words seem to have a certain
interaction with each other. Then they are likely to sort into small
piles. In a short time the the small piles consolidate and shake down
into an organization of their own. Together again they re-interact so
that a new pattern emerges and your words sort themselves into new
piles. In another short period of time they begin to re-configure
themselves in a way which you find more pleasing.
You
might organize this growing process into four stages: 1) start writing
and keep writing; 2) experience disorientation and chaos; 3) detecting
an emerging center of gravity; 4) mopping up and editing.
Peter Elbow continues to teach and inspire me. Much of my best work comes from what I learn from Writing Without Teachers.
rcs