Blog Post #4 (Flower & Hayes)

When considering how I write and the mental process that the activity includes, I am reminded of the above photograph. That is Zach Galifianakis from Todd Phillips’ cult classic comedy The Hangover. In that scene Allen (played by Galifianakis) is at a casino figuring out how to count cards and effectively rob the casino. That is not exactly how I see myself as a writer, but the image clearly represents my often jumbled thoughts. I prefer to write in a way that clearly expresses the point (of whatever I am writing) in a natural way. That might sound vague, but the process basically includes explaining a lot of points that connect to my main point, thus strengthening that main point. My theory is that people do not think the way that they write, otherwise oral communication would be kind of dull or robotic. People tend to write the way they have been taught to write because they were asked to do so for an assignment or a general task. Although that form of writing does serve a meaningful purpose in most contexts, that does not make it the most fun or interesting to read.

The aspect from the Flowers & Hayes journal that I relate to the most is their explanation of Planning. They define planning as ‘the act of building this internal representation… The most obvious is the act of generating ideas, which includes retrieving relevant information from long-term memory.’ Although it may seem obvious, planning is so vital to any type of writing, because without a plan in place there is no sense of general direction.

The way I plan is somewhat unique or ‘lazy’. I initially plan by getting one big idea in my head and then I tackle the other aspects as I go along. This way of planning works the best for me because I find myself writing the strongest when I am free from constraints or strict structure. Now, I recognize my use of the word lazy (above) is in parenthesis. The reason for that is it seems so many writers or instructors of writing believe there has to be one correct way to write. Sure there is a correct way to write a standardized essay, a research paper, or a critical analysis of Carlin, but I find it hard to believe a writing process or writing in its most general sense to have a definitive right or wrong way. Maybe that is because I view writing as more artistic than straight-forward, but it strikes me as backwards to argue there is a correct and an incorrect way to write.

I digress. The reason I feel as strongly as I do is because I genuinely like writing so much and I think many people don’t like writing because of the restrictions that academic writing places on them. It is hard to write a great essay for AP English and it is hard to write a scientific research paper, but if you write those in a way that is fun/interesting for you then I think writing (as a practice) becomes far less daunting and far more accessible.

Here I have included a couple of links that represent different ways to approach writing. One link is to an article about why writing is hard, because sadly, it is hard. The other link touches on ways to make writing more fun. This link is to a blog by a writer who once thought writing was not fun simply because it was hard. Once he changed his perspective on the challenge of writing, writing became more fun for him.

Links:

Why is writing hard?: https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2015/02/16/why-is-writing-so-hard/

Ways to make writing fun: https://medium.com/the-mission/10-simple-ways-to-make-writing-fun-1b53b426ac07