I’ve never been all that impressed with “prewriting” activities such as brainstorming, clustering, or freewriting, etc.; consequently, I haven’t had much use for them. No offense, but I just figured such tools were for fools, that anyone who actually believed the pump of the creative process could be artificially primed by such seemingly simplistic stunts was also naïve enough to believe that painting by numbers actually results in the production of genuine art.
After reading Lindemann’s chapter (pp: 109-129) on prewriting techniques, I must confess that I am now a willing - if somewhat reluctant - convert. According to Lindemann, “[m]ost students begin drafting too soon, before they have sufficiently probed the subject, developed their own point of view, and made a commitment to the message” (129). This is where I see the value of prewriting- at least for me.
For too long I have too often began the writing process too soon, not spending sufficient time thinking about what I’m about to write about. This is foolishness, for the meaning of the message I'm composing is certainly compromised by the folly of my failure to plan, and as it is said, it's not that we plan to fail; rather, it's that we fail to plan.
Perhaps with the tool of prewriting, this fool will one day compose a message, the wisdom of which will be worthy of all the folly it took to find it!
A hollow reed, I plucked and dipped in ink
ReplyDeleteTo pen a po’m in sonnet form today.
Like Spencer, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Millay
They are; therefore, I am, I’d like to think.
Or am I just a fool upon a hill,
Who squanders time by minutes, then by hours
Babbling and strewing limericks like flowers
Purposelessly as April? Comes, she will.
I can’t, nor would I, even if I could
Presume to climb the heights of Bards like They.
My hillocks are my own to my dismay;
Inspired, yet, dare I climb, as dare I should.
I pray my poetry may, too, inspire
Posterity to climb, yet even higher.
Copyright © 2008 B.T. Stenhouse (ASCAP)/
ProCityPublishing (ASCAP)
I've never been fond of prewriting or freewriting mainly because I usually know what I want to say and feel that it would be more productive to write it out and say it. Yet, I always plan before I write and sometimes when I do write the paper takes a form of its own.
ReplyDeleteI can't write a paper on a computer, I have to sit down with a pencil and paper and write it out. Once I finish that I type it up and print it in order to revise it. I have noticed that there is something personal about taking a pencil and having to actually write things out. Moreover, it seems that the topics are fleshed out through writing ( here writing is the act of writing with a pencil/pen in hand.) It is also in the process of writing that I have the 'ah-ha' moment because my brain is running a million miles a minute and the ideas are flowing.
But getting back to freewriting, I have noticed that it serves an important fumction to beginning writers. I can see the benefits in having highschoolers do such exercises. Highschool students are not as aware of the writing process or of the subject matter to begin to write out a 5 page essay. Lindemann's exercises I belive serve a function to individuals who are familiar with the writing process especially when one is having a brain fart or writer's block.
Re: "For too long I have too often began the writing process too soon, not spending sufficient time thinking about what I’m about to write about."
ReplyDeleteAlthough I am, of course, delighted with the cleverness of this particular quote, I now realize I am in error.
"Thinking about what I'm writing about" is part of the writing process, so, come to think of it, I'm always writing! Really. I'm always thinking, pondering, contemplating, considering... When I meet someone new and interesting I'm reminded that everyone has a story, whether I think so or not, whether I want to hear the story or not.
I'm a writer because I'm always writing, whether I've got a pen in my hand or not.