I love brain storms and stream of consciousness writing. My process usually is; wow! cool idea and yay! Go for it. While writing I discover what the idea means to me.
Writing is an exploration, a discovery process.
When “in the flow” a different part of my mind takes over and my inner knowing, my voice, lets beautiful thoughts fly onto the pages. When I start to" “figure things out” or explain my message, my ego-based writing can get pretty preachy. Preachy is a big NO for a rebel, as much as for artful writers. We are creating symphonies, all parts need to be in harmony; when I’m good I can hear the music of my words.
My fear of not being the artist I know I can be makes me run from structure and planning of my stories.
Exploratory writing is amazing. Getting to a deeper truth let’s us discover a unique take on old beliefs.
Exploratory writing made me a fierce editor. When at the end of the essay I often see things differently than initially thought and for sure, I see much, much more. So I go back to the beginning and cut and paste. I might even change the title. I was often kicked to the courage to cut cute paragraphs I felt were such perfect art work. But they didn’t fit into the whole any longer.
Talking about cute; it also takes brave resolve to cut out the fluff. It will cause a passionate writer’s sigh but limit your poetry in your essay.
Novel and screen writers have to “kill their darlings”; make their protagonists suffer to get to their goal. Essay writers have to let go of darling paragraphs to get to the point.
Being organized is no fun. For me. Discipline had been forced on me too many times.
The writer’s freedom to “let it flow” has it’s super creative pros and time wasting cons.
Thank you, my dear brain storming soul, I became a fierce editor. I needed that. But now I simply can’t waste time any longer. I love my morning lists but when I look at them at the end of the day and only did three of ten things having a Tequila to erase the threatening judgment of “looser” doesn’t help.
The way I write is a metaphor for the way I live. I need structure.
On the inside as much as on the outside; my daily rhythm and my pages are like twins.
Hit the brakes for your readers; they want to take something home and the more clarity you provide the easier the message or moral is wrapped up to go.
Hit the brakes for your self. We want to use time efficiently.
What do 500 words or less matter to me?
It’s a challenge to commit to clarity.
It requires
a straightforward thesis
organization of thoughts
an outline
an outcome
a plan
When I was a journalist I learned the hard “crying in publisher’s bathrooms” way that I had to present a strong opinion, not all the possible facets of a subject. “You’re not writing a novel, babe.”
1. To set the stage “Unclutter a physical drawer” as an exercise before writing.
Today I organized my styling studio’s outfits by color.
2. Wear a simple outfit, comfortable and non distracting. Overalls a great for disciplined work ethic.
3. Create a mind map
Closest to fun for emotional writers is brainstorming on paper; mind maps drawn by hand.
4. Use the head lines from your mind map as the content for your essay/blog (mind maps work for any goal)
5. Create an outline with the head lines, which become paragraphs
Results?
Blogging takes me half the time. (Still a bit too much though…)
I am warmed up for my two hours book writing every day.
Perfection is a lovely thought but can be counter productive. Truth is, this article is 642 words and I hit publish anyway:)
Have you created mind maps? What will they prepare you for?