I鈥檝e been thinking about writing more than usual because, as you鈥檝e no doubt heard, the 听is October 20. Specifically, I鈥檝e been thinking about the writing process, what an individual thinks it is and how, as teachers, we need to respect and encourage students鈥� individual processes. In fact, in my courses, my practice after every writing assignment was to focus a class session on each student describing the process that student used for the assignment and how that process worked for them鈥攁nd how it didn鈥檛. I鈥檓 not surprised that one of the beliefs in is 鈥淲riting is a process.鈥�
Acquainting students with their own writing processes, with others鈥� processes, and with different processes that may work better in certain instances is one of the best things we can do when teaching writing. And, students and others who may have a look at student writing in-process, need to recognize that the process is individualistic and can be messy鈥攖hat what is written first may or may not stay first or stay at all, that clean-up happens way later. Writers and particularly their early readers need to know that, as the first of the 听states, 鈥淭he expression of ideas without fear of censorship is a fundamental right.鈥�
I have consulted a few famous people about writing process and found, of course, that it鈥檚 highly individualistic and that writers look at writing, their own and others鈥�, differently. I found a few of these in a wonderful project, I鈥檇 like to share what they have to say.
听, 鈥淲hen I was teaching, many of my students were beginning writers who were nervous about starting a story. To get them going, we鈥檇 play a kind of word-association game. I鈥檇 ask them to list two people, a location, two objects, an adjective, and an abstraction. I鈥檇 write everything on the board, then give them five minutes to try to work everything into the beginning of a story.鈥�
听 talks about , 鈥淏ut Mules and Men is a book that鈥檚 unapologetically messy. . .To me, that鈥檚 one of the most appealing things about Zora Neale Hurston鈥檚 fiction: She鈥檚 never been big on cleaning up black lives to make them seem a little more palatable to a population that鈥檚 maybe just discovering them. She鈥檚 just not interested in that. Even today, in 2015, I know a lot of writers probably struggle with wanting to represent us in a 鈥済ood light.鈥� The fact that she didn’t care, 80 years ago, is just amazing.鈥�
听 as a 鈥渢errifying, a hot mess with a lot of tears involved 鈥aking long walks with index cards in my hands鈥︹��
听who听for the TV show Gotham gives us a last word, 鈥淚t鈥檚 like being a racecar driver, but you鈥檙e also a mechanic,鈥� McKenzie says, in a very writerly moment.
鈥淵ou can get into the engine and fix it, if you need to.鈥�