RUNNING HEADER: My Crazy Writing Process 1

My Crazy Writing Process

Harley Cadarette

North Central Michigan College

English 111/112

Seymour

October 22, 2021

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My writing process

As a high school student, I find writing to be a big part of my academics. I find it

interesting that everyone's writing process is different and special to them. Our own process is

what makes our writing ours and not anyone else's. My writing process starts out unorganized,

childlike and messy. In a reading about “Writing Advice From Ray Bradbury” (2021) I learned

that “it's okay to write crap”. My writing ends up neat, tidy and all wrapped up but it goes

through a transformation to get there.

I sit and I stare. Then I find something else to distract my mind from what I should be

doing. I sit and procrastinate. I do everything but what I should be doing. When I can’t connect

to the topic I am trying to write about, I sit and procrastinate even more than I usually do.

Sometimes it is difficult to write about a certain topic. So that is how I cope with it. After I

procrastinate, I can finally get back to my mind set of writing. I relax and find myself starting to

focus on the topic that I am going to be writing about. I break down what I want to say. I search

my brain for every ounce of knowledge I can come up with about the topic. When I finally finish

thinking about the topic, I then let it fly straight onto my paper. I sit and I ramble and throw

random things that are close to the topic. Everything that could remotely be close to it, I write

down on paper. Once I get going, I type as fast as I can before I forget any thoughts. As I write,

I fix things such as grammar. A lot of my revisions happen during my thinking process. I have

to be focused and want to write in order to fully get what I am trying to say down. If I get

disturbed during my writing, I have to stop and start from the beginning. Other times, I can’t

focus and I have to leave it for a while and I eventually come back to it. I find when I focus and

relax and let the words go, they start to flow easily. When I read about Lammott’s (1994) Shitty
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First Drafts I found that when I jotted everything down it was something other people were

doing as well. She said “So I’d start writing by reigning myself in. It is almost just typing, just

making my fingers move.” It's important to let all of your thoughts flow onto the paper. It helps

you remember them.

When revising I look at my essay as a whole. It is always a mess. Everything gets out of

order and sometimes what I write doesn’t make sense. So I have to organize all my thoughts. I

go back and take my writing apart, one paragraph at a time. I carefully read through it to make

sure that it makes sense. I will have two things that belong together in different parts of my

writing and will have to move things around. Sometimes I will end up deleting a whole

paragraph and sometimes the first one is good enough how it is.

My revising is usually my most rushed part of the process. Yes, I make sure that

everything is there, but I always feel like I could have more in my writing. When I read about

what Mike Rose (1980) said in the “Rigid Rules” I could relate to that feeling. Mike Rose (1980)

once said, “ This blocking usually resulted in rushed, often late papers and resultant grades that

did not truly reflect these students' writing ability.” Sometimes when I write I get a type of

writer's block because I am so worried about getting the paper in on time. I find myself not going

all in because I have such a short time. It is harder to get a well written paper turned in, when so

much stress is put on you and I feel rushed.

After I revise and I think that it is close to being done, I have someone else read it. I take

their comments and I consider applying them to my essay. You can always add more to your

writing. When it is all done, I read it out loud and make sure that it sounds good. The end result

is organized and well written.

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Being aware of the process I go through when writing, helps me because I know what

parts of the process are easier and which parts of the process are harder for me. I can break them

down and make my process stronger. When I don’t procrastinate too long and work on it a little

bit here and a little bit there it helps me not feel so overwhelmed and rushed.
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References

Lamott, A. (1994). Bird by bird: Some instructions on writing and life. Anchor Books.

Rose, M. (Dec. 1980). Rigid rules, inflexible plans, and the stifling of language: A cognitivist

analysis of writer's block. College Composition and Communication, 31(4), 389-401.

Reid, R., 2021. Writing Advice From Ray Bradbury. [online] The Write Practice. Available at

: <https://thewritepractice.com/ray-bradbury/> [Accessed 19 October 2021].