Go With the Flow, Man!
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| Lauenstein, Leonardt "hakuna Matata" 8/7/2008 via Flickr Attribution-NonCommercial-Share 2.0 Generic License |
My writing style is best described as easygoing. To actually give you an idea of what that means for me, I've analyzed my writing style and process.
What type of writer am I?- I consider myself to be a Heavy Reviser.
- My writing process incorporates aspects from the Sequential Composer and Procrastinator.
- Overall, my writing process seems to be successful in the end (according to the people who graded that stuff).
- I usually roughly generate an idea of what structure my writing should have in my head - or scribble it on a paper if I feel so inclined - and then just go with the flow. (Heavy Reviser)
- Yay! This helps me to decide what direction I want my writing to go: as I write, I gain an understanding of my position and don't have to box myself in early on.
- Crap... Sometimes I will get lost in my own flow and forget what I need to be focusing on.
- I tend to go back and edit on the fly. (Sequential Composer, Heavy Reviser, Procrastinator)
- Yay! This allows me to have a much clearer 'rough draft' - especially if it's my only draft
- Crap... I may not finish in time if I get too distracted by potential improvements.
- It would definitely help my academic career if I disposed of the Procrastinator aspect of my writing process.
- I may attempt to include aspects of the Heavy Planner into my writing process so I can stay more on task.
Reflection: After reading posts of other classmates, I realized that everyone has different processes of writing, and even though two may be very similar, they are never the same. I also was happy to know -thanks to Thomas and Katherine - that I wasn't the only one who had issues with procrastination or with getting a little lost along my planning path. While reading Katherine's post, I had an epiphany about how I can improve my writing process: I shall now jot down key ideas that I want to include in my writing alongside my scribblings of an outline! Looking at how others write, has given me a new perspective on how I write. I used to think that everyone was supposed to write down a huge outline - and if you do, that's awesome - but I just don't function like that. I plan as I go. Seeing that other people also deviated from the generally assumed 'correct' writing process gave me peace of mind, more understanding of just how differently people write, and made me think of using other techniques.
Resources: Thomas Cortez: We Are All Free Swimming Amoebas
Katherine Ahlskog: Generic 'Blog for School' Title
Resources: Thomas Cortez: We Are All Free Swimming Amoebas
Katherine Ahlskog: Generic 'Blog for School' Title
I'm also a heavy reviser, with procrastination unfortunately a large part of my process. I like to write with a more 'stream of consciousness' that allows me to write as I think, but I often have to go back or I will end up with nonsensical sentences. I think everyone can benefit from taking some positive points from other writing styles.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love this post it's concise and interesting and very laid back. You seem to just go with the flow and let your writing talent do the work without overthinking anything. I relate to your process, it seems like a more efficient and relaxed version of mine. I'd really love to adopt your attitude towards writing.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I'm also a heavy reviser and a bit of a procrastinator (as I write this post at 11:43 on Saturday night). I love how your personality seems to shine through your blog post effortlessly, as a stream of consciousness. As a fellow heavy reviser, I might suggest maybe setting aside time to edit your work instead of editing on the fly. Sometimes you have to give your mind some space from your work in order to edit! That being said, everyone knows what works best for their writing process.
ReplyDeleteI am a lot like you! I just kind of write on the fly or whenever I have some free time and my draft may look nothing like my final. But the deadlines in this class, I have had to slightly shift that method.
ReplyDeleteThroughout this class, has your writing style had to evolve and change to fit new criteria or have you been able to stick with this same writing style for the semester?
Has the step by step blog post style allowed you to become more organized in the flow of your writing or does it just mess you up?
Do you still procrastinate or have you been spacing out your blog posts so that is not as much of a problem anymore?
Hey Victoria! My process has definitely become more structured. I plan, outline, make a rough draft, seek a second opinion, edit, look back at the rubric, then tweak it even more to produce my final product. The step-by-step blog posts have been really helpful in spreading out the workload of projects, and have really allowed me to see the value of planning and distributing aspects of an assignment over time. Oh, I definitely still procrastinate, but it doesn't seem to be for as long, and I usually complete more of the deadline before the day it's due (instead of doing everything on that day like I used to...). I think my writing process is overall the same, but has become more refined and easier to direct.
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