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Do you think of yourself as a writer? Or are you just a
graduate student who must write to complete the requirements for your degree,
to get published, to get a job, to keep your job, to get tenured and promoted
in your job? It might help if you start to think and act like a writer. Here’s
how:
It’s
simple. You must write. You can also think, worry, read, fret, take notes,
agonize, organize your materials, worry, buy a new desk, fret, sharpen
your pencils, agonize, wash your dishes, did I mention worry, eat a
snack…but this is not writing. You must write.
And
you must want to write. Not to finish, or publish, or get a job, or
receive approval or affection or recognition…but to write. You must think,
“I really want to write today and will create all opportunities to do so,
rather than avoiding all opportunities to do. I am writing today to write.
I am writing today because I want to write.” So all you have to do is
write. You don’t have to finish. Or meet a deadline or goal. You just have
to write. It’s freeing. Don’t wait until you’re ready. Don’t wait until
everything else is done. Don’t wait until you are well rested. Don’t wait
until you’ve read every book or article on the topic. You never will be
all these things. You will never do all these things. If you wait, you’ll
never write. Or be a writer. Writers write.
Writing
is hard. Chances are there is nothing wrong with you if you find writing a
challenge. Even the very best writers say it’s hard. You’re in very good
company if you find writing hard. So don’t not write when you find
it hard. For most of us, that’s an essential part of the process.
Commit
to writing at least 15 minutes a day. Find what works for you. Write in
the morning. At night. On the laptop. On paper. Your forearm. Lamott
(1994) commits to writing enough each day to fill a 1”x1” picture frame.Writing everyday contributes to the continuity of your thinking and
generating the ideas you need to write. Your mind will function
differently when you write every day. We all think about our
writing every day. But the cognitive processes involved in writing are
different from those involved in thinking. You move your project forward
when you write.
Write.
Don’t edit. (Yet). “If you try to write and edit at the same
time you will do neither well” (Sides, 1991). You have to write before you
can revise and edit to get the draft you want.
Try
to get in the “flow.” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, 2003). “The task at hand
draws one in with its complexity to such an extent that one becomes
completely involved in it” (2003, p. 40). The process of writing
differs when you think and when you write.
Good
writing takes a long time. To write, edit, revise, you must start early.
You must not procrastinate. Here’s the dilemma: When you delay your
writing until you finally must start, you often only then discover that
the actual writing is not as difficult as the fear of starting to write.
But you no longer have the time you need to produce the excellent work you
now know you are capable of. Give yourself time…when not much is on the
line.
You
will become a better writer the more you write. Drafting, even editing, will
occur more quickly. After you begin to think like a writer, and act like a
writer, you may begin to think like an editor as you write. But it may never
get easier. Sorry about that.
Allen, J.
(2008) The new faculty and graduate mentor. Sterling, VA:
Stylus Publishers
Csikszentmihalyi,
M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: HarperCollins.
Csikszentmihalyi,
M. (2003). Good business: Leadership, flow, and the making of meaning. New York: Penguin.
Lamott, A.
(1994). Bird by bird: Some instructions on writing and life. New York: Anchor Books.
Sides, C.
(1991). How to write and present technical information. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Strunk, W.,
& White, E.B. (2000). The elements of style. New York: Longman.
Some of the information in the Break Writing postings is
drawn from previously published work, and I have tried to properly attribute
the ideas and work of others. If I have failed to do so, please let me know so
I can clarify and correct (ja2310@columbia.edu).
Continue to Break Writing #15 - Writing Resources
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