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| Bottai, Sean Screen shot of image from 1.8 8/26/2015 via D2L.arizona.edu. Private usage |
Thinking about your own writing process:
What type(s) of writer do you consider yourself to be?
I would consider myself to be a mutant hybrid of a procrastinator and a Heavy Planner (a bit of an oxymoron, but thats what makes it interesting). I deal mostly in narratives when writing scripts and reading them, therefore my head sees everything like a script, complete with character descriptions and actions, directions and dialog. The downside to this is I tend to break everything down to be character driven which in news articles and academic journals is not always the case so I find myself checking out mentally and not being able to grasp the content as well.
Does your writing process include several of the above approaches? If so, which ones?
Well as with real estate or fight club, the first three rules of storytelling is always the same. Story, Story, Story. My process tends to focus a lot on story before starting to write. Nailing down the plot points and inciting incidents and characters. Then i tend to just write in order of whatever comes to my head, which is where the procrastinator shows up, I suffer horribly from chronic writers block (my therapist says it's all in my head...) and therefore deadlines force action for me.
Does your writing process seem to be successful?
I would say it has been fairly successful so far, I got into this class so... But I could defiantly improve on time managing and not just writing whenever something comes in my head, but forcing myself to do it even if its horrible.
Do you think it might be beneficial for you to try a different approach?
I could stop letting the procrastinator side of me have playing time. I could try to just concentrate on writing within a schedule and sticking to it, that would be the main improvement I would make to my writing style.
Reflection:
After reading the same posts off of Savannah and Emma's beautifully and elegantly written blogs, I have come to the simple conclusion that I am literally my own worst enemy. Savannah wrote gorgeously about her "heavy planner" writing style and how she means to stick to it as often as she can but sometimes she just wings it, that sentenced summed up high school for me. Emma commented on this post earlier saying that she thinks I have to stop overthinking, and she's absolutely correct. Constantly worrying about story structure and fiddling with it leads to almost over-fixing something which in turn breaks it, so as soon as I feel I have the story structure down, just stick with it and write. Thank you to Savannah and Emma for your comments.
Being a Heavy Planner myself, I can relate to parts of your writing process. Like you, I always focus a lot on the topic and what the story I am telling will be before I begin the writing process. After all this planning, my writing tends to flow. This is where our writing styles differ. Coming from personal experience, my advice to you would be to stop overthinking. Your writers block will likely lessen if you are able to relax a bit and let all the ideas you've carefully planned out flow from your head to your paper.
ReplyDeleteI can understand the heavy planning; I am the same way. I like to have a plan of action and know where I am going with my writing. However, I am more of a "doer", rather than a procrastinator; therefore, I cannot relate to procrastination. Maybe when you are scheming and planning you could begin writing an outline as a start. Once you have a physical outline, the writing portion comes more easily and is over a lot faster. However, if your method works for you, then do you!
ReplyDeleteYour writing process is very similar to mine. I also procrastinate but try to do some heavy planning before writing. I don't see everything as a story so I don't need to write like you do but I think our process is very similar. Emma and Savannah made really good points but I'll just add that revising is also a critical role in the writing process that needs to be utilized, especially if you're the writer that just writes what comes to your mind.
ReplyDeleteAfter having been in college for a few months and knowing the work load that you have, do you still procrastinate as much or has that aspect of your writing lessened? Has the process work for this course (blog posts, peer review) helped you more with your planning process? Has peer review specifically helped you with your revision process in a way that has helped you organize your thoughts?
ReplyDeleteHello Sean!
ReplyDeleteI find that I do procrastinate less yes. However I am very streaky and if I start procrastinating I am really good at leaving it to literally the last second. But if I just start working at the beginning of the week, I don't procrastinate at all. The deadlines have helped me with this more than anything. The peer review hasn't helped me with that aspect but more with having an outside/ secondary opinion to go on.