I got the idea for starting a Writers Workshop on MidLifeBloggers when a friend, Merlot Mom, wrote on her blog about finding her own way to write rather than bowing to conventional wisdom of how it must be done. I jumped in with both feet to the conversation, and afterwards I thought—whoa! You certainly have a lot to say on the subject. So I sat at the keyboard and made a list off the top of my head of all the Things I Know For Sure About Writing. I suppose I shouldn’t have been amazed at how passionate I felt about it, considering that I have this whole background as a writer and a writing teacher. So I began creating the program that became the MidLifeBloggers Writer’s Workshop. I knew from the start that the whole thing was an experiment and might not work as planned– which it didn’t. But I’m still passionate about teaching writing, so I’ve scaled back my plans and I’m presenting them to you now as the MidLifeBloggers Wednesday Writer’s Workshop. Every Wednesday, in this same space, I’ll post about writing. Let’s see how that goes….
Things I Know For Sure About Writing
The first on my list was the post on Process that I put up last week. The second on the list is this:
It doesn’t matter how or where you write, so long as you write. Start anywhere in your story. Begin anywhere the words come to you.
Where else is one to start but at the beginning of a post? Ummmm, in the middle? Or with that something that sparked the idea in the first place? I come from the Vomit It Out school of writing. Charming, yes I know, but really, just spew the ideas out any which way. I could continue my metaphor here (as is my wont, you know) and point out that you can always flush them later…or use them as compost for further writing. Instead, let me tell you why it’s crucial that you allow yourself to begin wherever you want to.
- Your words are not precious commodities that must be treated like rare pearls to be strung in a certain order. It’s the ideas that are the precious commodities, and they’re fleet of foot in getting away from you. Best, then, to get them down as and when you can.
- Sometimes starting at the beginning leads you right down a dead-end alley. You won’t know that until you hit the wall, and by then, it’s too late. If it’s the beginning that is driving you, by all means start with it. But if you’re chipping away at the beginning just so you can get to the good part, the real meat, which is in the middle—start there. Maybe the middle is your beginning and you just didn’t know it.
- It doesn’t really matter where you begin, because you’re going to be revising the whole thing after it’s finished. Right? Aren’t you? Of course you are.
- Sometimes the post we think we’re writing isn’t really the post we are meant to be writing. You have to be fluid, to allow yourself leeway to find that out. It’s called writing organically—which means writing from your truest self—and it’s antithetical to think it can happen if you’re imposing rules on yourself.
Here are some questions to ask yourself to get yourself writing organically:
- Are you a rule-follower?
- Do you generally believe there’s a right and a wrong way to do things?
- Where do your ideas about The Proper Order of Writing come from? Teachers? Other writers?
- Do you find yourself getting frustrated because you can’t seem to follow The Proper Order of Writing?
- Have you ever started in the middle, just to do it? What happened?
- Have you ever written the ending of a piece first? Why? How did that work for you?
- And–most important–do you have any wisdom or experience to add to this Workshop post?
Jane Gassner
