Writing Makes Us Writers

                             When you want to be a writer, write. Start writing and keep writing. Your writing makes you a writer. When our object is to write we don't have to be perfect, but it is good to be good.

                        So, write something. Consider taking ten minutes to write a paragraph. Write something about what you would like to write about.

                        I used to use a timer when I wrote and found it helpful in several ways. For example, I found myself stopping to make corrections or to rewrite so often that I lost my line of thought and wasted time. So, I set my timer to ring in five minutes and did not stop for anything until I heard that ring. Then, if I felt like it I made corrections or changes. I also found that it helped to have the nature of a pararagraph somewhere near the conscious level of my mind. Neither of these doings is completely necessary. Certain doings are more important as you begin to write. Having a table and chair handy may prove helful. Pencil and paper and your glasses at hand may be a good idea. Maybe a computer with a speech to print app at hand and warmed up could make your writing flow more easily.

                    For this writing do not stop to make corrections or to edit. Just keep writing. Do not go back to read or anything. Just write. This practice can help you to accomplish writing.

                        When we are note-taking or writing a first draft it is often best not to take time for editing, improving word choice, or executing excelent  punctuation. You may write more efficiently when you complete such acts in your final draft or your penultimate one. It's OK to change your mind, but often best to express that which is on your mind at first. Which is often a more efficient way of writing. Later you can look over your writing and get a better idean of wht you were trying to get at. Seems that I have writen elsewhere recently that that we grow and develp as we write.

                        Well, did you write for five or ten minutes, relax for a while and then read what you have written. If so you can make additions and corrections as you like. Congratulations. Relax for a minute or five. You have written. You are a writer.

                        Now reread what you have written. Don't throw it away yet. You may get a surprisingly use idea from it which you can use right now or later.

                        If  you still feel like writing, do it. You can make your corrections and additions. Maybe you made a wrong meaning in a wrong word. You can double check the meanings of the words you are not completely sure of. This could be a good learning experience for you and good the the meaning and clearity of your paragraph. It could even help your reader to get that which you want her to understand or feel.

                        One changes as one writes. One's writing changes as one changes. We grow and develop as we write and our writing grows and and develops as we do so. 

                        Your most embarrasing paragraph or sentence can contain a gem or seed from great writing. Where you see the possibility for that gem or seed make a stab at bringing it out, clearifying it, or even making it shine and grow.

                    I am so old now that I am losing skill faster than I am learning. Even so, I am remember ing some past experience. After three or so of the writings were were just talkng about and if you have saved that which you have written, you'll have a pile of rubble. When you look over that rubble try not to over look seeds and gems. You are nearly sure to find words, phrases, and a sentence or two which seem important.

                    Use some careful thought and editorial discrimination to see what your words, pharses, and sentences add up to. Decide how much you believe them. Arrange them somehow so that the make sense. write some new and connecting parts if you wish.

                        We could call this your first real draft. We could also say that you have begun your career as a practiced writer. Congratulations!

                        When you feel like writing more you may find that when you keep alert to finding an "an emergent center of gravity" as you write, you may find one.

                        That emergent center may help you to more clearly see what you are writing about. Clarifying what you are writing about is often a big help. I am remembering now that at this point I sometimes found that which I thouht ought to be the beginning of a paper ought to end it and what I thought ought to end it was better as a beginning.

You can find the following as aids to finding and clearifying that center of gravity:

~ As you write you may honestly come to say, "Ah, now I see what I have been getting at." Pay attention.

~ Finish what you are writing about. Put it aside for a time. See useful implications as you look it over again.

~ See that your good idea is crap. Then see tat part of it is les crappy. Sort out the good parts from the bad. You don'thave to throw anything away. You may come to see that some of it is better than your favorite idea.

~ Your first writing may be good scaffolding fir your next writing.

~ You can find a powerful spark in a tiny digression of yours. You may keep the same elements of your work, but change the whole orientation for the better. 

~ See your work improve as you improve. See yourself improve as your work improves. 

~ As you progress in a piece of writing, be alert to an emerging focus or theme. Its OK to let your focus ortheme improve.

~ If notheing emerges in a piece you are writing, sum up thar which you have written, then sumit up again.

~ Push yourself a bit to keep getting some center of gravity or summing-up to occur. 

~ Work gradually toward moderation from extreme positions. If you feel you must be immoderate in a given case, make sure that you are being extremely honest and realistic.

~ Its fair and good to explain your position and its source.

~ Keep writing.

                    It is possible to learn a lot by helpimg others to develop their craft. That could be done in a writing group or you may do it by your suggestions or examples in the "comments" section below. Share an experience, information, or understanding. Pass it on here. You can even ask a question. You can help me by proof reading this piece and making sugestions or correcting my spelling. This is  a way to be a published writer!

                    Thank you for reading and thank you for writing.

                                                                                                rcs

Editing With Peter

Write With RCS: Peter Elbow and editing. We'll say good bye to Peter soon.                                                                            

                 From some old notes of mine from a book by Peter Elbow about learning to write without teachers I am rediscovering that he seems to be a very good teacher and writer. I am learning from these old notes. Maybe you can learn from them too. I intend to publish some posts dealing with them. This particular post is about editing one's writing.

                Mr. Elbow's book was published by Oxford University Press in the early 1970s. It is entitled: Writing Without Teachers. You may want to find a copy for yourself.

                From my earlier reading and from my present notes I have come so familiar with Peter Elbow I feel I can call him Peter.

                    According to Peter, you may come to a point when you say, "I see what I have been driving at; I see what I have been stumbling around trying to say."

                When you agree with Elbow, ah, Peter, that editing means figuring out what you really want to say, getting it clear in your head, getting it unified into an organized structure, and then getting it into your best words, and throwing away the rest; at that point you are ready for some editing That seems a bit much and not completely clear. Maybe you ought to read Peter's book.

                Time to struggle for the exact phrase, cut out he dead wood. If you find yourself in trouble, it may finally be time to write out an outline.

                A useful outline is a list of full assertions - one for each paragraph. Assertions are complete sentences pointing to a real configuration. The list of assertions logically progress to a single assertion. Having done this you have worked your way up to a point at which you can work down through your editing

                I intend that there be more coming.

                

               Here it is:

More About Editing Your Writing

                You can't edit your writing, says Peter, until you you can say, " What the hell, there is more where that comes from. Easy come, easy go." "Be a big spender not a tight-ass."

                You might find yourself regressing. Enjoy it and learn. You may have to revisit earlier difficulties.  You may have yet to really inhibit fully your difficulties of producing. You may be doing things like trying to recombine words so as not to have to throw them away.

                Throw them away ruthlessly; you will learn to generate more prolifically.

                If you find yourself spending a lot of time on introductions and transitions you had best reexamine relationships.

                Cut a word and keep a reader. Peter suggests that you play sculpture pulling off layers with chisel to reveal a figure beneath. Leaving things out can make the backbone or structure show better.

                Editing is being tough enough to make sure that someone actually reads your work.

                In Peter's own words, "To write ten pages and throw them away, but end up with one paragraph that someone actually reads---one paragraph that is actually worth sixty seconds of read time---is  huge, magical, and efficient process.

 

            Let me know if you find Peter's book available.

                                                                            by Richard Sheehan

 

You Can Express That Meaning

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




 

 

 

 

Writing Without Teachers

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 

Intro to Write With RCS

Write With RCS: An introduction to a writing niche 

 I have perhaps a dozen little essays on writing in the works and ideas for a few more. That seems enough to begin a little niche blog dealing with writing.

 

 Over the years I have had several blogs, but nearly all of them have had a mix of many topics. I have seen and believed that the better blogs nearly always have a discrete topic or niche. So, now I intend to try and have such a blog.

 

My present suggestion to bloggers, including myself, is to sort an present your writings into clearly defined areas. My first efforts to that end will be this blog on writing. "Writing" may not be enough of a clearly defined area. So, it seems I have a great deal of room for improvement.

 

This blog will deal with the practice of writing. It may become a "how to" start writing and keep writing and include suggestions for getting "unstuck." It may include how to have some useful and to go a step beyond the step beyond in collecting them. I may include a suggestion or two for completing a useful draft. I will probably post of seeing our writing as a process of self-development and growth. The posts here will be about bettering our writing.

 

It is beginning to sound like a "how to blog." Maybe I should call this blog, Hints For Bettering Our Writing. I say 'our' and mean 'our.' So I will appreciate your comments, suggestions, corrections, and hints for better writing because I need them. There is a "comment" window below where you can write to us. Your commenting can be anonymous, but it is better if you can identify yourself. Of course you an identify yourself with a pen name if you wish. 

 

 

                                                                                                            RCS