Reflections on Writing

I am going to try to add something here every week. I have made promises like this to myself before, and generally find that SOMETHING quickly intervenes to take my resolve or my attention away. But let’s live--and write--for today.

I suppose it’s a bit risky to discuss my personal relationship to writing when I am the director of a writing center.  I am expected to be an exemplar of the good writer, and admissions of doubt or shortcomings may lessen my credibility.  On the other hand, I imagine it could also be reassuring to students who themselves struggle with these issues to know that one can write, at least up to a point, even with some shortcomings.

Being a “good writer” has a couple of different meanings.  One is that a person can create a “good” written product.  The meaning of “good written product” also is subject to various interpretations, but for the present time, I mean that the writing is clear, grammatical, thoughtful, and to some degree interesting, even entertaining.  Both the content and the vehicle by which it is expressed are pleasing.  By that standard, I can safely say I am a good writer.  However, writing is also an action, a process.  So a good writer can also be a person who writes fluently, efficiently, and perhaps even gracefully.  However, there are not many people, if any, who actually do write like this.  Certainly I am not one of them: in regard to process, I am a bad writer indeed. 

In any case, it’s not clear that being graceful or fluid alone is desirable.  After all, graceful runners, swimmers, etc., are rarely praised for their form if they are not competitive.  It’s only when they are winners that we may stop and notice their technique, e.g., Michael Jordan and his gravity-defying flights toward the backboard.  His method might have been noteworthy under any circumstances, but it would not have been praiseworthy if he did not also sink baskets as he “flew.”  (Graceful dancers might be seen as a counterexample, but they still would not be considered praiseworthy if their movements did not result in an artistically satisfying performance when joined together into a piece.)

I, at any rate, have a horrible writing process.  In fact, it is so bad that it often prevents me from completing the writing projects I begin. To continue the sports analogy: I have always been a terrible runner and swimmer, and this is due in no small part to the fact that I have limited lung capacity because of asthma, and consequently get winded within minutes.  Although I had never thought of the parallelism until just now, I would have to say that something akin to mental asthma winds me within a short time when I try to write. 

That may be enough for one day’s entry.  Over the coming weeks, if I have the courage, I will detail some of the obstacles that I encounter when I try to write.  I will also be talking about more objective things, such as composition theory, tutoring methodology and research, and the issues non-standard speakers face when they strive to write in the university environment.  I will assume for the time being that I am writing for myself, to myself.  We will see if any comments come in to disturb the tranquility that comes of this belief. 

Jeff