Chris Ortega - Week 2

 

My favorite parts of the writing process, as outlined in the Bedford Guide, are the prewriting and revising stages.

In the prewriting stage, I follow a similar tack as the one in the guide, in that I freewrite for a while when I begin an assignment to see where it’s going to go. I freewrite before I brainstorm or mind map, and I write it as a sort of argument with myself in a conversational tone. Once the material comes out in a human-sounding way, I can then start to see the outlines of the argument, and the broader outlines of the piece itself.

The drafting is the most challenging part of the writing process, because everything from the prewriting stage has to be painstakingly reworked and arranged to meet the needs of the piece’s audience. In a sense, this is the most labor-intensive part of writing.

Revising drafts and sharpening them into strong pieces is the most fun part of the writing process. It becomes a bit of a performative project, in that every part of the piece is read aloud and scrutinized repeatedly to see if it’s as effective as it could be, or if there are better ways to present that particular aspect of the piece. Seeing everything come together after fiddling with it so much is supremely satisfying.

Comments

  1. Dylan NiceSeptember 8, 2020 at 6:08 PM

    Thanks for your post, Chris. I'm always impressed by folks who have such clear structures and processes to do literally anything in their lives. I always go about everything in fits and starts and then the process by which I arrived at something becomes a chaotic blur. Thus, when I'm asked how I go about doing something my response is often less than eloquent. Not the strongest position for a teacher to be in.

    I suspect many of my own students, like you, come to their drafts with more structured energy. Then, after an office hours meeting, I worry I've only gifted them my own chaotic energy.

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  2. Lucie BerjoanSeptember 9, 2020 at 6:50 AM

    Chris, I agree completely with your analysis of each stage of writing. I find myself thinking that I actually hate writing and it's the brainstorming and revising (or performance of it) that I love... I think a lot of it (for me, at least) has to do with controlling how I'm perceived by the reader and needing to be seen in a particular way. That is also, I think, where Dylan's "chaotic energy" becomes helpful– overly structured and tended-to writing can easily lose whatever spark it had. I think what I seek out in my process is some happy middleground: clear structures and processes with a little splash of chaos to keep things interesting.

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