We Write All The Time....

Write, write, you'll know when it's right!!!

There are a variety of purposes for which we write. There is what I call functional writing. A shopping list, entries in a calendar, someone's contact information, are all examples of functional writing; the primary purpose is to serve a specific function by making the information readily available. There is writing to communicate, of which this brief document is an example. Most school work, emails, text messages, journal articles can be placed under the "to communicate" as their main function. Then we have what I would consider creative writing. Writing for the sake of writing, of giving voice to inner thoughts, maybe even of discovering what those ideas are via the writing itself. Creativity though, and hence a shade of creative writing is by necessity embedded in any and all writing we do, even our shopping lists.

Writing those pieces that require minimal creative writing can be as easily done any day of the week. Creative writing on the other hand, the writing that comes from within, is not as easily accomplished at any given time. Sometimes it dribbles onto the paper (or screen now a days) like a gentle spring, which if forced to produce rivers, responds by temporarily drying up. At other times it is dammed and more closely resembles the dry, sandy riverbeds one can occasionally find in the desert. Yet on other occasions it is prolific and the pen (keypad) seems insufficient and slow to capture it all before it spills and spoils. How wonderful to find that a professional author, who also teaches writing workshops to potential aspiring writers, admits that writing can, and often is, a daunting experience.

Some of the author's best suggestions up to this point in the book include remembering that a first draft is that, a draft, and therefore is quiet alright for it to be a work in progress, offering great opportunities for improvement and revision. The process of being able to go back to a draft and work on it is given as much, if not perhaps more weight than the quality of the initial draft itself. Likewise, the author emphasizes the importance of writing regularly, making it part of the set routine, without over-worrying about the content of what is being written initially, but rather focusing on getting it out, putting it into words. Thinking of each writing session as the time to work on a single small significant piece of the whole, the author uses the analogy of a painter looking only at a small piece of canvas, a 1' by 1' and concentrating all attention on just that fragment. I can almost feel how this could make a large writing project instantly become more manageable, once an overwhelming task something achievable, perhaps even pleasurable.