Andrew week 2

I think my writing process is somewhat unusual, in that the vast majority of it takes place off the page. A professor of mine once told me only 10% of the writing process takes place at the keyboard; the rest involves going about living your life, keeping in mind that all experience provide potential material for writing, even if that potential isn't revealed for months or years. What I've found to be an effective means of putting that into practice is, as soon as I think I have the "storm cloud" of an essay in my mind, starting up a conversation with someone about it. A conversation provides a space where you're immediately putting the idea before an audience before any writing has actually taken place, where the writer can rehearse presenting with clarity in mind and where someone else can ask questions and sometimes even contribute to the elaboration of the core idea, providing associative "rabbit holes" to go down.

I really struggle with setting my standards too high for my own writing, making drafting difficult (in fact, I usually don't complete/edit first drafts of papers before submitting them). I invariably fall short of my own expectations, and the sense of embarrassment and inadequacy that I feel prevents me from ever wanting to revisiting it for revision. 

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