My Writing Process

Much like getting on a roller coaster, when I go to begin writing I am at first hesitant. In this way, I am a "Procrastinator", because the initial lack of desire to get started can be hard to overcome in the beginning. But eventually I tell myself so suck it up in order to stay on top of the deadline. However
writing, at least in my case, is not a straight track to the end. It is full of ups and downs, twists and turns, and even the occasional loopty loop throwing me into complete disorientation.

After the panicky feeling of "Oh dear Lord what have I gotten myself in to" wears off, I come to grips with that fact that there's no going back, and I begin to brainstorm. I think of my brainstorming as the buildup to the first peak of the rollercoaster. In this short phase I am a "Heavy Planner". My mind slowly creeps around, getting different ideas of what I could write about, until I find The One. The topic I am going to stick with to the end. When this happens,  my writing begins to rapidly pick up speed.

Johnson, Connor "Roller Coaster Ride Amusement Park Speed Thrill" 09/28/2014 via pixabay. CC0 Public Domain

Despite the slow start, my writing is soon over the first hump, speeding down the track at break-neck speeds. This is the main part of my writing process, and it clearly labels me as a "Heavy Reviser". Countless thoughts rush mind at this point, each fighting to pour out of my head the fastest on to the paper. As a result, my first drafts and outlines are often a jagged jumble of thoughts.

There are always moments where I am sure I'm about to derail that slow me down momentarily. In addition, rapid twists and turns take my writing in directions I hadn't expected it to go. I make sure to stay on track, but also continue to let the thoughts pour out, until I finally reach revision.

I am once again definitely a "Heavy Reviser", in that I rely on spending the majority of my time revising to put together a sensible work. At this point I am finally able to slow down and make sense out of the chaos that just ensued. In the middle of the rollercoaster of writing, I'm too busy trying to get the ideas on to paper before they are forgotten to make sure that people will be able to understand them. But during revision, I edit the thoughts until they are logical and understandable.

I have tried to slow myself down before and be more of a "Sequential Composer"thinking that maybe that would be a more effective use of time to divide it out into equal pieces for each step. After all, the sheer number of ideas I put to paper seems a bit excessive when I think about how many I'll be discarding. But while people with "Sequential Composer" minds may find this quite effective, I find that for me it seems to make my thoughts drier and less real when I try to stem the initial flood of ideas. I think it is always important to try do do things differently, and if I could eliminate the "Procrastinator" in me I think it would improve my writing just because I would have more time. But for the most part, my "Heavy Reviser" writing seems to give me a result I can be happy with.

Although I have a love-hate relationship with them while they're happening, the twists and turns that come from my process are what makes writing interesting for me. I feel that being a "Heavy Reviser" is an effective way of writing for me, because it is how I come up with ideas I might not have before. If I censor my ideas during the drafting process, valuable thoughts are forgotten. For me, it is much easier to get it all out where I can see it and then later sort through to make a coherent piece of writing.

Later on:

After reading Gabee and Zayla's posts, I have a new insight into writing, both mine and the writing of others.

I was able to relate to how Gabee feels that writing down any idea you think of is more authentic, and I feel like my writing could be improved by gaining some of the confidence she has in these initial ideas. The way I write I end up cutting out a lot of thoughts that don't fit in, and maybe if I found a way to incorporate them it would make me a better writer.

Zayla on the other hand is quite different from me in that revising is her least favorite part and my very favorite part. I think its very interesting that we can both have very different writing techniques that work for each of us personally, and it makes me feel like sometimes vastly different ways of doing things can be equally as effective.