The Most Important Rule Of Writing
- Posted by Essays Blog in Essays Blog |
- November 20th, 2008 |
- Comments
I just finished a set of conferences with my students which inspired me to compose about the most important rule of writing — writing is a process.
So many of difficulties struggling writers face occur when they ignore this simple rule. Once you embrace the fact that writing is a process rather than an event, once you recognize that the more time you give the process to activity the better, so not only will writing be easier you will also compose better.
Writing is a process. Piece that process varies fairly based on the chore and the individual writer, the basic stairs it includes are the same no matter what.
First is the initial brainstorming process. No actual writing takes place in this block although thither may be any note action or non-stop writing exercises. The more time you give yourself for this process so the easier the next block will be. Experiment with different forms of brainstorming and prewriting to determine which works best for you and your different writing tasks. What may activity in one identify of writing may not activity as advantageously with another. The more you experiment so the more likely you will find the optimum brainstorming process for you.
2nd is the drafting process. That first rough draft should be a quick and painless draft. Your main goal at this point is simply to capture the fruits of your brainstorming in one document. Just compose until you have abroach your brain. Do not hold yourself back by rewriting, revising, or editing. Do not pause to anxiety about spelling, grammar, punctuation, or morpheme choice. If you are conscious that you will need to fill in gaps so simply hit return double (my accustomed model) or compose in all caps MORE LATER so move on. The important goal at this point is simply to capture your ideas in one place as quickly as possible. It does not have to be pretty and likely it will not be pretty, but it will be done.
3rd is the revision process. This should accept more than one draft to accomplish. Again, do not drop time torment about spelling, grammar, punctuation, revising or editing. Fix the obvious errors that are distracting to you as you rework but that is not your main goal. Your main goal with this part of the process is to look at the big picture. Is your treatise clear and advantageously backed? Are your ideas advantageously organized and fully developed? Are thither any gaps in the writing or logic? Do your ideas changeover advantageously from one to another?
Fourth is the editing process. Now is the time to anxiety about spelling, grammar, punctuation, and morpheme choice. Zoom in your focus from the big picture to the condemn and paragraph level. This effort may accept one or more drafts to polish your writing to the desired level.
If you are creating a more in-depth project so you may also need to add a block between brainstorming and drafting that includes research and organization which would make the writing process include five stairs.
The most important part of creating your own individual writing process is to let it evolve as your ability grows. The more you refine and polish your process so the better the activity you produce. The key to developing a booming writing process it to give yourself time — time to let your process evolve and time to let your writing develop. This means not to rush the development of your writing process. Let it evolve over many different projects. This also means not to rush your actual writing. Allow days to pass between different stages and drafts. The more time you allow to pass so the more activity your mind will do for you and the fresher eyes you will be able to bring to the project.
I promise that if you remember the most important rule of writing so you will improve as a writer. Developing your own individual creative process and giving it time to activity will make you a better writer.