Last week’s post was full of magical ideas about words falling out of your mind and onto a blank page, arranging themselves in no particular order until several drafts later, after you, all of your friends, one or two teachers or tutors, and every expert on writing who happens to live in your neighborhood (doesn’t every neighborhood have its very own writing expert?) have read through your ideas again and again and again, arguing with them, moving them around, chucking them out the window, reeling them back in again, and finally giving them the seal of approval.
In some ways, this depiction of the process of creating a first draft is accurate, if oddly romantic and mostly metaphorical. This image of the process of creating a first draft is also a frustrating reminder that writing takes a lot of TIME.
The problem with the time commitment involved in writing is that lots of people who are asked to do a lot of writing (i.e., students) don’t really have that much time. You know what I mean: you’ve got 75 pages to read, a discussion post to submit, an exam at the end of the week, and two papers due within two days of each other. On top of all this, you’ve got to work every evening this week, you want to go to a club meeting, you’d like to go to a friend’s party, you promised your Mom you’d go over to her place for dinner on Sunday, and it would be nice if you could spend some time with your significant other before the start of the next millennium.
How can you possibly get all of this done?
Specifically: how can you get those recalcitrant words to form themselves into acceptable drafts of the two papers due within two days of each other?
The key is to remember that writing is more about ideas than words. The words are simply there to show the reader how your ideas grow together into an argument. The work of connecting ideas together can be done long before you choose the words that will drive those ideas home to your audience. This work can be done largely in your head after you’ve put the first draft onto the page. In some cases, this work may be done even without the aid of a first written draft. For example, most of this blog post came to life in my mind three days before I sat down to put its words onto the screen. What’s more, the bulk of this birthing of ideas happened while I was doing something completely unrelated – or so it would seem – to writing, such as washing dishes, vacuuming the floor, cooking a meal, or washing my hair.
Never underestimate the valuable role of housework and other everyday minutiae in facilitating the writing process. The following tips will help you leverage the ordinary acts of your day as crucial steps in the writing process.
TIP ONE: Start thinking about your argument or the relationships between ideas in an upcoming writing assignment the second that your instructor assigns it. Even if the assignment isn’t due for ten weeks, start thinking about it as soon as you have the assignment prompt. It’s never too early to start thinking about the relationships between the ideas you’d like to explore, the evidence you’ll use to support your argument, the ways you’ll analyze your evidence, and the kinds of sources you might need to reference.
TIP TWO: Think about your upcoming writing assignment(s) every time your brain is reasonably at rest, even if you have only one or two minutes of resting brain time to spare. Are you walking across campus? Think about what you want to say and how you want to say it in your upcoming writing assignment. Are you picking out zucchini at the grocery store? Think about what you want to say and how you want to say it in your upcoming writing assignment. Are you cleaning your house or mowing the lawn? Think about what you want to say and how you want to say it in your upcoming writing assignment. Are you just about to fall asleep? Think about what you want to say and how you want to say it in your upcoming writing assignment.
You get the picture.
TIP THREE: Keep writing utensils and sheets or pads of paper scattered in random places throughout the house, so that you can easily jot down ideas as they come to you. It’s especially important to keep a writing utensil and writing surface near your bed, as many of your best ideas are likely to come to you just before you drop off into the Land of Nod. Something about the mystical moment between waking and sleeping seems to lend clarity to the mind.
TIP FOUR: Think about your ideas, arguments, etc. in a variety of expressive media. Words are helpful, of course, for the written draft, but you may find that images, sounds, colors, or diagrams are more helpful in the planning stages. Note that diagrams can be especially helpful when you’re having trouble figuring out whether or not and how all of the topics that you want to cover are related to one another. These diagrams become even more helpful when you transfer them from your mind to a sheet of paper, a whiteboard, or some other appropriate writing surface.
TIP FIVE: Once the ideas start to gel in your mind, set them down on paper (or the computer screen) as a first draft. Don’t worry if the draft is mostly stream-of-consciousness nonsense. (See last week’s post!) Read the draft once you’ve finished it, then let it sit for at least a day. Continue to think about the ideas in this draft as you go about your daily business for the next 24 to 48 hours. Never cease to ponder the best way of putting your ideas together!
TIP SIX: After a day or two of thinking about the ideas in your first draft, return to the written draft. Compare the ideas in the written draft with the ideas in your mind and begin to revise the written draft, as needed. Bear in mind that you may need to repeat this process of drafting, reading, setting aside, thinking, and revising two or three additional times.
TIP SEVEN: Remember that there is no “correct” approach to drafting a paper. A combination of mental work and written work is generally helpful for most people. But some of you may find that you don’t need the first written draft to coax ideas into shape in your mind. Or some of you may find that the paper more-or-less writes itself in your head, so that you need to produce only one written draft. Experiment until you find the right balance of brain-work to written-work: a balance that leaves you not only with an excellent written assignment but also with a bit of extra time!
Tune in next week to explore the world of writing in a straight line (or not….)
Happy Writing!
Dr. Lori
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