Blog 1: This Plot has Holes

My writing workflow.

My writing workflow is inhibited by my desire for perfection. Although a common trope amongst academics, I find it worth noting. It has been since the start of my undergraduate degree, and remains, my largest hurdle when writing, and what I feel is most frustrating. I am unable to write quickly, meaning that writing a paper for school, for a conference, for a journal, takes me a startlingly long time. My saving graces are my time management skills and willingness to dedicate hours every day to the process; however, striving for an unachievable goal hinders my overall writing. The act of writing the paper becomes exhausting and feels like drudgery. Perhaps this is not something I can of overcome, although it seems worth trying to. Of course, if it is not possible to abolish the feelings, I would still love to learn to write more quickly; after all, who would not want to facilitate the process and reduce their hours of work?

Writing with perfectionist tendencies stunts my creativity. Before beginning university, I wrote because it was enjoyable. Writing fiction was something I found stimulating and did regularly. I now find myself unable to engage with this pastime because I cannot produce a perfect product. This same issue appears within my academically-inclined work as well, because I focus on producing clear, cohesive thoughts above creativity and interesting ideas. For example, the thought of engaging in free-writing exercises renders me nearly catatonic. This impediment stunts my creativity and is something I would like to move past. I feel that I have little to no trouble creating new research topics or generating interest in new areas within my elected field. It is the writing itself that feels joyless and uncreative. I am generally commended for my style, characterized most commonly as ‘clear’. I want it to be so much more than this.

Although somewhat counter-intuitive to my above grievances (gravences?), I would like to learn the ‘rules’ of writing. I rely on what ‘looks’ and ‘sounds’ correct when writing, rather than the grammatical rules that create the structure. Perhaps this will serve to increase the efficiency with which I write. It will certainly ease my anxiety and prevent future google searches, such as “how many commas is too many commas?”

This leads me to the writing process itself. I almost always begin by reading. I visit the library and check out a number of books that appeal to the topic and may inspire me. Following this, I jot down ideas, quotes and evidence from the readings to see what I feel is more interesting. Once I have what feels like an idea that is sufficiently engaging, I craft a thesis statement and from there, an introductory paragraph. This helps me to set out where I am going and to determine if the essay will ‘work’. If I struggle to write the introduction, I know that the essay itself will not work and thus, requires reshaping. This forces me to return to the drawing board. Once I have developed an satisfactory introduction, I write the essay. I often aim to write over the page limit or word count so that when I edit I am forced to reduce it. Cutting away sentences and whole paragraphs is hard, but I find it leads to an essay with less fluff and just the good stuff left. I then read and reread, normally 2-3 times. Finally, I send it to a friend to catch any glaring mishaps and grammatical eras. This produces the final product for submission.