Blog Post #3: My *sometimes chaotic* Writing Process

 As I have previously shared, writing hasn't always been an easy, carefree process for me. I take a lot of pride and ownership in what I write, regardless of whether it is a Facebook post or an English essay. In both of these activities, I am technically engaging in Flower and Haye's three identifiable writing stages- planning, composing, and revising- but I think it's fair to say that much "more" goes into writing an essay, especially when it comes to the planning process. When I am writing something like an essay or response, I must gather my thoughts and begin to organize/prioritize them through something like an outline. This outline doesn't always look the same, however; sometimes it's a "traditional" worksheet-like document that is neatly separated and my ideas are hierarchically divided, and other times it is a messy jot-down of ideas that I collect throughout the days in my notebook. However, it is important to understand that these outlines are not the end-all-be-all of what I am going to write and turn into my professors since, as Flower and Hayes remind us, "Common sense and research tell us that writers are constantly planning (pre-writing) and revising (re-writing) as they compose (write), not in clean-cut stages" (367). While it is important to gather data and begin organizing the major ideas/goals I want to use to guide my writing, I have learned that exerting too much of my energy on the planning process and viewing it as a strict guide that I must follow actually ends up slowing me down in the long-run, and it can close me off from the beautiful processes of learning and discovering as I write.

When I have a formed outline and feel like I have somewhat of a vision, I begin to write. This is quite the taxing process for me at times since I am still trying to learn that my sentences do not have to be written to be in their final form. I have to admit, though, I was relieved when Flower and Hayes revealed something that I feel like I intrinsically knew, but no one had actually vocalized to me, which is that revising often happens as a writer is writing; it does not have to be this giant step that we do after we "finish" our writing. After reading this, I took some time to reflect on how I typically write and realized that my "writing" stage is just a chaotic, but often successful, blend of writing and revising (with spurts of planning, of course). I desperately wish a teacher would've framed the steps of the writing process as our reading this week did, which is that of a tool kit, where "the writer is not constrained to use them in a fixed order or in stages- and using any tool may create the need to use another" (Flower and Hayes 376). While it can be beneficial to introduce writing steps separately to novice writers so that they can identify and begin to understand them, putting too much emphasis on the "step" aspect of it can cloud student's perception of what writing really is, which is an individualized blending of skills, ideas, goals, and thought processes. I hated going into class the day before an essay was due and seeing that our task was to "revise" our essays since, quite frankly, I did the bulk of the revising as I wrote. I would much rather reword and rearrange my ideas on a paragraph basis as I'm writing and "in the zone" than revisit a completed essay later and feel pressured to "fix" it. 

While I have grown a lot in my understanding of how I write and what writing itself consists of, I definitely could take some advice from Spandel in her chapter "The Right to Write Badly." While I realize I do a lot of the revising while I am actively writing and working on a piece, I was a bit taken aback when she pointed out that "a writer may rework a draft for publication for publication three or four times, put it away for a while, and then rework it three or four more" (68). Just the thought of producing 7+ drafts of something puts a knot in my stomach and makes me question if I've been doing everything wrong, but it's also important to recognize that I almost always write within the constraints of school/assignments, which as she points out, means we simply don't have the time to go through these cycles. However, I love the idea she proposes of writing "to write" without the pressure of being assessed, and think that I could have become a much more confident and risky writer at a younger age if I had been given these kinds of opportunities. I was often the student who she describes as writing "safely" and saying what I thought my teacher would want to hear, and it's clear to me now that this didn't help spark the intrinsic desire to write, nor did it help me find my individual voice as a writer. I've definitely come into my own as I've gone through college and learned more about the art of writing, but I can still relate to these novice writer experiences, and hope that I can someday be the teacher that finally pushes her students to begin writing without constraints. I think that digital writing can also help break students through that "block" that comes with formal writing since many, myself included, tend to view digital communication as overall more personal and creative. I don't care about developing a strong thesis and properly formatting evidence when I am writing a tweet, and the various multimodal aspects of this kind of communication, such as the use of links, images, gifs, and hashtags, help bring my ideas to "life" in a way that traditional writing cannot. We should embrace these expressive, literacy-building opportunities, both in the classroom and our day-to-day lives.