Blog 2

My Writing Process

Writing for School

How do I write? I can tell you right now that I don’t use outlines in the beginning of my drafts. In all honesty, I rarely ever use outlines. I’m the type of writer that just needs to get the ideas down on paper, regardless of how disorganized or how confusing my thoughts may seem.

I usually start off with rambling. I just need to get my thoughts down, any thoughts in order to start the process. Sometimes I scribble on paper, most of the time I just start to type. It even helps if I cover my monitor or dim the lights on the screen so that I cannot see what I’m typing, that way I would just focus on getting my thoughts out and not focus on all the red and green squiggly lines from errors on my word document.

Other times, I create a list of questions that I need to answer. These questions are usually taken from a guide sheet or notes that I have written in class. As I write, I constantly go back and forth and save multiple versions of drafts and number them 1, 2, or 3 in my computer. I then look through my drafts and copy and paste sections that I find useful and continue to revise.

As I go through my writing, sometimes I color code and highlight points where I’m stuck. I make note of places I’m stuck and continue to write the sections that I’m more confident in, that way I don’t lose my train of though.

Of course as I’m writing, I’m usually talking out loud, reading my piece over and over again while sounding like a crazy person . I need to read my paper out loud. It’s imperative for me to hear what I’m saying; it helps me figure out if my sentences make any sense. Sometimes when I hear myself reading out loud, it sounds so much different from what I intended to write.

After writing for a good amount of time, I take at least an hour break. If I have time, I put the piece away for even a day or two. This way I have time to distance myself from the writing. If I edit my paper right after I write it, I’m more likely to overlook mistakes. I figured this out the hard way.

After creating my set of rough drafts, when I am finally ready to edit my piece, I print it out. I need something tangible in order to make corrections, move paragraphs around, modify ideas and underline key points and color code themes that correspond with my initial set of questions.

I then read my piece out loud, first looking for coherence, meeting objectives, focus and organization of ideas. This is when my highlighters and crayons and colored pens come in handy. My paper usually looks like a rainbow when I’m finished. I also doodle as I revise. Why? I don’t know. I guess I’m a doodler. It keeps me sane, keeps my pen moving.

Afterwards, I take my paper back to the computer and continue to create the changes. Once those changes are made, I then print out another draft (I usually use scrap paper or the back of my colored drafts and print two pages per sheet in order to save paper). This is the time I start to read my paper over again and fix grammatical errors.

Afterwards I read the paper to a friend or my boyfriend to make sure that I am making sense. If I’m happy with my paper, then I’m finished.

Writing for Myself

The process is not the same when writing for myself. I don’t modify and revise as much as when I’m writing for school. I just write to get thoughts out. Writing was an outlet for me during my tougher teenage years. Now, I usually blog or write in a journal at home (although I do admit, I’ve been very lazy). On my down time, I’d rather cook, play with my dogs or spend time with friends. I guess academic writing has taken over my life as a writer. I haven’t had inspiration or the drive to write outside of work and school. Ooops, I went off topic again. See? When I write for myself, I just go on and on. I don’t even read my writing again until days , weeks or even years later. Writing for pleasure doesn’t put any pressure on me, I don’t really care about rules, grammar, structure, organization or even coherence. After visiting a journal entry years later, I laugh and think “why on earth did I write about that?”. It’s exciting and it’s a way to revisit my memories (especially because I’m so forgetful).

When would coaching be effective in my process?

When it comes to my writing process I think coaching would be beneficial when I need someone to listen to me as I read my paper out loud. I also think coaching would be great to help me with the areas that I’ve color-coded which needs further development. Coaching would help me get “un-stucK”. I’ve had so many instances where I was on the verge of giving up in writing but one of my friends from the writing center would push me to keep going. Sometimes all I needed was reassurance that I don’t sound like a complete idiot. Sometimes all I needed was someone to help clarify the questions that were being asked. I feel like writing with a support is so much better than having a paper handed back to me with one sentence of feedback and pages of proofreading comments.