The Art of Writing.
I have always found that communicating my thoughts via speaking does not seem to come so naturally to me as it does to others. The words just don't seem to come as quickly as I need them to, and also with not enough clarity. However, by writing and documenting my thoughts it gives me so much more freedom and articulation. I find myself becoming more passionate, excited and profound. I love that time to be all engrossed in laying out my thoughts, and seeing them visually unravel and build in front of my eyes. So when, in my university course, we had a workshop on writing I couldn't have been more excited.
The first thing we learnt about was: "free writing". This is a simple technique in order to get more ideas to paper. You simply write without stopping, like a flow of thought, as Virginia Woolfe called it: "writing at a gallop." So we were given a task to write consistently for 5 minutes answering the question: What is writing?
The conditions being:
- Write in sentences.
- Don't ever stop.
- If you stop, carry on to write: "I can't think of anything..."
- Not important to write correctly.
- Don't read anything until the end.
- Keep on going.
Honestly, this was quite hard for me, as I found it quite like speaking. There was no time to review yourself. Being put under a timer like that made me feel under pressure and I tried to write quickly, rather than thinking with clarity. However I still came up with some points: writing is shapes which communicate language. Writing can be anything you want it to document or say, writing is thoughts brought straight to paper.
Surprisingly, as difficult as this was for me, I'd say generally I start every blog post by "free writing". My words flood to the page like water untamed. My hands are not able to keep up. The difference in the task we were set and writing my blog is that it's much easier to write something that I'm truly passionate and knowledgable about. Also, it mattered for me the pressure to HAVE to write something with a time limit. I believe those factors inhibited my flow of writing. Anyway, it felt good to challenge my mind and writing ability. I suggest anyone to choose a topic and write and just see what comes out. Surprise yourselves.
I learnt the timeline of how to write which I found most helpful:
1. Generate
Don't worry about the reader. Make lists of points you want to explain. Use free writing as explained above. Dictate: use your phone on voice record to record things before you forget them. Mind-map ideas in order to visualise them.
2. Organise
Group and find themes. Map relationships.
3. Present
Think about the reader. How does it sound? Have it proof read.
I think there is one thing Peter forgot, which is so common: "writers block", and how to overcome this? I've found the most helpful thing to get past this is gentle activity that doesn't require much thinking. Walking or painting my walls at home most let my brain open for ideas to flow. Also, travelling and gaining new perspectives from meeting new people. Most importantly staying present and true to myself. The thing I most like about my blog is that I don't feel inhibited. I don't feel like I need to speak a certain way or tell my listener what they want to hear. I don't even know who my listeners/readers are! I write for myself.
I find it a shame that the content we watch these days on social media is visual and aesthetically pleasing, specially formulated with filters to slowly change the functioning of our brain. We read headlines, but rarely read text, and the text we do read is the text we are fed through artificial intelligence. It's rare that we consume ourselves in thoughts, ideas and topics of conversation, and also include ourselves in those. Emotions are even shaped by emojis now. I am made to have a reaction to someones thought with a picture, not with my true feeling. That's even more provoked by facebook's new emoji-reaction button. So no wonder we feel blocked when we are not used to expressing ourselves and communicating in an enriching way. Which lets me conclude with my chosen quote: discover what you believe in order to free yourselves to create your art.
Here are some books and websites we were recommended by Peter:
Book: "On writing" by Stephen King
Using English for Academic Processes: UEFAP.com
Book: "Refworks" by Peter Elbow
Great post Emily! I had never really thought about how we use emojis instead of actually writing our emotions! Its crazy also how you said about how we just look at images on social media now and rarely read the text! I think as humans in 2020 we have gotten quite lazy, distracted and have short attention spans! I even find myself doing that online!
ReplyDeleteI think I am the opposite to you! I am such a talker, but when It comes to putting pen to paper I honestly freeze up and start to over analyse everything that I am trying to communicate! I really enjoyed the writing workshop and wish that we have lectures like that more often, because I got so much out of it! I certainly always think of the end product and feel blocked how to get there, so his break down of the process of writing really helped me!
Hi Emily, I loved reading your post. The way you have mentioned writing through social media has stimulated many of my own thoughts. I never before thought about the use of emojis preventing us from describing our emotions. It is much easier to put a smiley face on a comment than to actually describe how certain content/situations makes us feel. That is why these blogs are so great - we are forced to write everything, there is no emoji option. At first I found this difficult as it is not something I am used to, I feel that social media has had a big impact on me. To speak about our emotions can benefit us in many ways, such as our learning and our mental health - it shouldn't be hard for us to do this.
ReplyDeleteThe workshop has opened my eyes to many ideas. The use of free writing is not only a skill that we can use for essay writing, but it can also be used as a way of expressing ourselves 'on-the-spot'. It is something that I would like to practice and develop in my own time as feel it will benefit many aspects of my everyday life. x