I had just finished playing a charity soccer game at the Bernabeu Stadium in Spain when I decided to head to the locker room for a quick ice bath recovery session. Sure enough as I walked in I found a set of four ice baths one of which was available. The three other baths were occupied by players from the opponent team. As I stepped in, I congratulated them on their good performance and introduced myself. They introduced themselves and I discovered I was in the presence of professional writers : Don Murray, Mary Karr, Anne Lamott. I was told by Don that they were talking about the writing process.
As I was listening in on the conversation, I realized that this was the perfect chance to get an answer on my writing problems from three different professional perspectives. “I always tend to struggle expressing my thoughts on paper at the beginning of every assignment in my English courses, what do you recommend I do to avoid this struggle?” Marry looked over and smiled before speaking “In the beginning, when there are zero pages, you have to cheer yourself into cranking stuff out, even if it later lands on the cutting room floor. Each page takes you somewhere you need to travel before you can land in the next spot.” Anne nods her head agreeing with Marry and saying “The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see and that you can shape it later. You just let this childlike part of you channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the age.” She took a moment to adjust her position in the tub before continuing “What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head.” - Anne I found myself mostly able to relate to Anne on letting it all out and shaping it up later. This sparked another question in my head “As writers, how do you shape or edit your pages?” Don quickly responding as if he knew what I was going to ask “A good deal of writing is censorship—keeping irrelevant thoughts out of the paper. Many of the ideas that arise in our minds have little relation to the purpose of our writing, and the habit of following impromptu ideas may result in a jumble of pointless remarks.” Marry elaborating on Don’s response “Rewriting on the page is safer than revision in, say, painting, where you can paint past a good place and wreck a canvas. Performers can’t revise at all. A writer can always go back to an earlier draft. The point is to have more curiosity about possible forms the work could take than sense of self-protection for your ego.” Takes a sip of her water before adding on “The editor self thinks only of saving the reader time and shaping a powerful emotional experience.” This far into the conversation, I realized how much knowledge I have gained from their helpful and detailed answers. However, I still had one more question I had to ask “How do you revise your paper and make sure it will all make sense to the reader?” Don took his hand out of the water and pointed at me “Of course the writer attends to an “other self” that reflects the voices and expectations of a wider public.” Don adding more on “A student who clearly understands his purpose is not likely to be trapped by an accidental sequence of ideas, for he will recognize when he is going astray.” Annie finished off by talking about her experience “I always show my work to one of two people before sending a copy to my editor or agent. I feel more secure and connected this way, and these two people get a lot of good work out of me.” It was at this time my set timer went off and was time for me to get out the ice bath. Before leaving, I thanked each and every one on their helpful tips that I plan on taking into consideration when writing my future papers.
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AuthorMustafa Al-Qaraghuli “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”
- Louis L'Amour Archives
May 2019
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