Hi Terry, I was surprised to notice that your writing process, as illustrated by you involves magic mushrooms. Based on your illustration, I was expecting more discussion of their psychotropic enhancing benefits as pertains to your writing. I am teasing, of course but your illustration(s) cracked me up. Interesting piece and I will check out Mary. Thanks
Jeanne T, an early morning chuckle from your comment. Can't wait to see what Terry has to say :)! I would love for you to "check me out"—and connect. I too read and paint but try to avoid the unavoidable: doing dishes. I've a got a method --write me and I'll explain. xo ~ Mary
I must know this secret! I must. I will wrtie as soon as I figure out how to do that on substack, In the meantime, I am subscribing and you will have my email, so feel free to send me the 'method'. I promise to keep it on the down low.
Appreciate this post, Terry. I don't have evidence of this, and maybe it's unhelpful to generalize, but in my experience a lot of men have this ruminative stage in their process. It was a subject of some debate with my Composition colleagues over the years. Many of them embrace Anne Lamott's notion of shitty first drafts. I suspect that you have rarely written a truly shitty first draft on the page or screen, though you have written and abandoned many in your internal writing stage. At least, that is often true for me. There is this notion among many Comp/Rhet teachers that everyone needs to get comfortable with messes, with chaotic brainstorming and "freewriting." And so a lot of students are coerced into exercises that never would have been fruitful for me at that age. I don't know that any freewrite I've ever done with my students, for instance, has produced anything interesting or worth pursuing further. This may be a character flaw, a symptom of control or some other masculine aversion to vulnerability, but it is, for better or worse, baked into my process. I don't like writing bad sentences. This means that sometimes it takes me a while to warm up at the beginning of a writing day. I have to reread what I've written, feel the rhythm of it, start and stop and sometimes start over before I hit my stride. It's not always terribly efficient, but I think we have to learn to accept how we are, to some extent, and turn those innate dispositions to our advantage.
Thanks, Joshua. I'm afraid I never agreed with Lamont, or at least, perhaps arrogantly, I didn't think it applied to me, for the reasons you state. I tend to a lot of drafting in m y head, so the so-called shitty first drafts get thrown out at that stage. I've never much liked the idea of free writing either, though I'm happy to give Mary's suggestion a go. I tend to get myself started either by coming up with a 'seed', as I wrote in the article, or, failing that, I'll give myself a sort of opposite-to-free-writing exercise, such as "Write a review of last night's TV programme in exactly 36 words".
I quite like what John Warner says in his book "Why they can't write". This is taken from a review I wrote, which I'll repost on Substack at some point:
"Teachers want their students to succeed, so they provide all the help they can. When it comes to writing, for example, there are devices such as rubrics, writing frames and the five paragraph essay. There's then a good chance that in exams they'll produce just what the examiner wants to see. But will it turn them into writers, or make them even want to write? Probably not.
The reason, according to John Warner, is that we are teaching them to pass writing exams rather than become writers."
I'm not sure if it's to do with masculinity or not, but probably is: I can't be bothered with all the touchy-feely stuff. That's the reason I could never work for the Samaritans. I'd probably say things like "You need to get out a bit more". I also hate ice-breakers in conferences or courses: I just want to get on with it, not waste a load of time playing games. I daresay I've just been struck off Mary's Christmas card list!
Never, Terry, off any of my lists. BTW, I don't send Christmas cards (horrors!), I know. Different tradition. xo always and what a guest post this has been, sparking so much conversation.
Joshua, Terry is right that each of us must find what works. Still, I'm betting that if you try this free-write in this lesson https://marytabor.substack.com/p/what-we-know-and-what-we-dont-know, you may change your mind. I recorded it via Soundcloud. The idea is not that it produces a draft, but rather "glimmers" to be saved in a journal. When I was working as an executive in corporate America as director of public affairs, managing a large group of professional writers/journalists, and trying to find a way to make a difficult life transition, a subject you talk about, I wrote to a well-known NYTimes guest author of a column of creative personal essays and who was then head of creative writing at GWU. She allowed me to come to her first class: super basic intro class. To get in, I did a different freewrite that she quickly read and as I was leaving the class, she told me I could go the admissions office and enroll. Later, she did this free-write that I’ve recorded for you in this lesson: https://marytabor.substack.com/p/what-we-know-and-what-we-dont-know. I have gone back to the journal entry – and “glimmers” have appeared in my published work over the years more times than I can count. I hope you’ll give it a try and even consider sending it to me privately, if you like. xo ~ Mary
Thanks so much for sharing your process! As someone who jots tons of notes with the hopes of finding them a home, I love the idea that nothing is useless or wasted :-)
Excellent, J.M. Elliot. I agree: Save everything. Maybe this approach will help: I keep journals in two ways: Handwritten in bound paper journals and in Word docs. The way I do the docs is each year I create a journal doc; e.g. "Journal 2023" and I date all entries. The journal is not a diary but instead a collection of what I like to call "glimmers" -- thoughts, snatches of dialogue, images. I also copy into this computer journal anything I've scribbled in the bound paper journal. When I'm inventing, I scroll through yearly journal docs. Images, phrases pop out and enter stories, chapters. xo ~ Mary
Yes, the big thing is finding them subsequently. I digitised a lot of my notes, but the trouble with that is that when the app goes wrong or gets discontinued the digitised notes are unavailable or unfindable. So I still have the original notebooks, which I leaf through occasionally to see if I come across anything potentially useful.
I'm so impressed you don't check email in the supermarket!! I have a bad habit of staring at my iPhone while I'm waiting to grab the leeks. I'd really do better to leave it at home. But my local Whole Foods requires me to "scan in" with my Amazon Prime code so it can follow me around with cameras. So much less romantic than how I'm imagining your grocery shopping across the pond!
Well, Alicia, we can't get a signal in our supermarket, which is why I don't check email. I probably would if I could. In the supermarket I use they have a scanner thing, so you scan your loyalty card with it, and a message pops up saying "Welcome back, Terry". (I think the name part might differ between people. It would be worrying if you, for instance, got a message saying 'Welcome back, Terry'). Then I zap the barcodes with the scanner, which automatically adds up the total bill. Once I've recovered from the mild heart attack which that induces, I go to a till, zap the barcode on the till, pay and race out. So, as you can see, a deeply romantic experience!
I've learned absolutely loads - it's always interesting to read about the writing process of others, and this was no exception.
That 'last sentence' technique is something that I like a lot - often I don't know where my writing's going until I've got to the end, so my technique is then to nip back to the top of the page and sow a seed for the ending, after the fact.
Do you make notes while you're thinking, Terry? I've got the supermarket in mind, here - if you're busy filling your trolley with tangerines aren't you worried that you might not be capturing your thoughts as you go along?
I'm saving this post to read again - there are some absolute gems of writing tools in there! Thank you so much!
Thanks very much, Rebecca. May I say, first of all, that I have copyrighted the phrases "opening sentence", "closing sentence", "last sentence", and the expression "And what will be YOUR last sentence today?"
I sometimes stop to make a note while I'm thinking, but as my aim is usually to get out of the supermarket as soon as possible I often try some sort of association technique. For example, I might put a packet of something in the trolley upside down, or a leaflet in my top pocket. When I come to those things I remember the idea I had. It usually works. :-)
That's a great technique for aides-memoires, Terry - good thinking! Well, good thinking unless you spill the contents of that packet of lentils you've just turned upside down, that is!
I'm always impressed with people who use association to recall things - sadly, I'm not one of them. In fact, nor am I an in-person grocery shopper - supermarkets are the most anxiety-inducing places ever invented. I'm officially allergic.
Yeah, well, no system is perfect 😂 I find supermarkets strangely calming apart from when I find myself blocked by someone who somehow manages to take up the whole width of an aisle
Lol. I learnt my lesson from receiving an overdue notice from the library. It was a book on memory techniques -- I'd forgotten I'd taken it out. No word of a lie!
Hi, Rebecca, I'm sure Terry will answer your questions shortly. I add that, like first sentences, last sentences are key. I don't write toward a last sentence because getting to the ending includes for me "not knowing" as I strive for both surprise and inevitability on the journey of invention.
I often - mostly! - don't know how a piece of writing is going to end until I get there - although I have to say that in my case this isn't deliberate! Once I've got to my last sentence I go back to leave a breadcrumb or two earlier in the text - when I remember, that is!
I should have mentioned in the article, I sometimes ditch the sentence or 'seed' that caused me to get writing the piece in the first place: a case of murdering your darlings
I, oh dear, too often! find that my last sentence needs to be cut--horrors 🥰-- when I review what I've written -- so totally with you on this aspect of that last task: editing that is, and as I love to repeat this: Invention first. Editing is a secondary task. ~ Mary
Yes, but sometimes with me the 'seed' is a really funny but scathing sentence voicing an opinion about something, like a book. But when it comes to including that scathing sentence in the piece once I've written it, I often decide that it doesn't actually add anything of value after all. Its only value was getting me started on the piece in the first place. A kind of literary McGuffin
I mentioned this post to Emily, who writes about writing. She liked it. Conversation here: https://thewordsmith.substack.com/p/writing-as-burrowing-the-string-of/comments
Hi Terry, I was surprised to notice that your writing process, as illustrated by you involves magic mushrooms. Based on your illustration, I was expecting more discussion of their psychotropic enhancing benefits as pertains to your writing. I am teasing, of course but your illustration(s) cracked me up. Interesting piece and I will check out Mary. Thanks
🤣 It was actually meant to be a lightbulb. Now you know the reason I failed Art at school. Mind you, I hadn't thought of magic mushrooms....
Jeanne T, an early morning chuckle from your comment. Can't wait to see what Terry has to say :)! I would love for you to "check me out"—and connect. I too read and paint but try to avoid the unavoidable: doing dishes. I've a got a method --write me and I'll explain. xo ~ Mary
I must know this secret! I must. I will wrtie as soon as I figure out how to do that on substack, In the meantime, I am subscribing and you will have my email, so feel free to send me the 'method'. I promise to keep it on the down low.
I will do so from mltabor@me.com --Jeanne, you can write anyone of substack this way: their name and substack.com. So, for me, marytabor@substack.com xo ~ Mary
Appreciate this post, Terry. I don't have evidence of this, and maybe it's unhelpful to generalize, but in my experience a lot of men have this ruminative stage in their process. It was a subject of some debate with my Composition colleagues over the years. Many of them embrace Anne Lamott's notion of shitty first drafts. I suspect that you have rarely written a truly shitty first draft on the page or screen, though you have written and abandoned many in your internal writing stage. At least, that is often true for me. There is this notion among many Comp/Rhet teachers that everyone needs to get comfortable with messes, with chaotic brainstorming and "freewriting." And so a lot of students are coerced into exercises that never would have been fruitful for me at that age. I don't know that any freewrite I've ever done with my students, for instance, has produced anything interesting or worth pursuing further. This may be a character flaw, a symptom of control or some other masculine aversion to vulnerability, but it is, for better or worse, baked into my process. I don't like writing bad sentences. This means that sometimes it takes me a while to warm up at the beginning of a writing day. I have to reread what I've written, feel the rhythm of it, start and stop and sometimes start over before I hit my stride. It's not always terribly efficient, but I think we have to learn to accept how we are, to some extent, and turn those innate dispositions to our advantage.
Thanks, Joshua. I'm afraid I never agreed with Lamont, or at least, perhaps arrogantly, I didn't think it applied to me, for the reasons you state. I tend to a lot of drafting in m y head, so the so-called shitty first drafts get thrown out at that stage. I've never much liked the idea of free writing either, though I'm happy to give Mary's suggestion a go. I tend to get myself started either by coming up with a 'seed', as I wrote in the article, or, failing that, I'll give myself a sort of opposite-to-free-writing exercise, such as "Write a review of last night's TV programme in exactly 36 words".
I quite like what John Warner says in his book "Why they can't write". This is taken from a review I wrote, which I'll repost on Substack at some point:
"Teachers want their students to succeed, so they provide all the help they can. When it comes to writing, for example, there are devices such as rubrics, writing frames and the five paragraph essay. There's then a good chance that in exams they'll produce just what the examiner wants to see. But will it turn them into writers, or make them even want to write? Probably not.
The reason, according to John Warner, is that we are teaching them to pass writing exams rather than become writers."
I'm not sure if it's to do with masculinity or not, but probably is: I can't be bothered with all the touchy-feely stuff. That's the reason I could never work for the Samaritans. I'd probably say things like "You need to get out a bit more". I also hate ice-breakers in conferences or courses: I just want to get on with it, not waste a load of time playing games. I daresay I've just been struck off Mary's Christmas card list!
Never, Terry, off any of my lists. BTW, I don't send Christmas cards (horrors!), I know. Different tradition. xo always and what a guest post this has been, sparking so much conversation.
🤣
Joshua, Terry is right that each of us must find what works. Still, I'm betting that if you try this free-write in this lesson https://marytabor.substack.com/p/what-we-know-and-what-we-dont-know, you may change your mind. I recorded it via Soundcloud. The idea is not that it produces a draft, but rather "glimmers" to be saved in a journal. When I was working as an executive in corporate America as director of public affairs, managing a large group of professional writers/journalists, and trying to find a way to make a difficult life transition, a subject you talk about, I wrote to a well-known NYTimes guest author of a column of creative personal essays and who was then head of creative writing at GWU. She allowed me to come to her first class: super basic intro class. To get in, I did a different freewrite that she quickly read and as I was leaving the class, she told me I could go the admissions office and enroll. Later, she did this free-write that I’ve recorded for you in this lesson: https://marytabor.substack.com/p/what-we-know-and-what-we-dont-know. I have gone back to the journal entry – and “glimmers” have appeared in my published work over the years more times than I can count. I hope you’ll give it a try and even consider sending it to me privately, if you like. xo ~ Mary
Thanks so much for sharing your process! As someone who jots tons of notes with the hopes of finding them a home, I love the idea that nothing is useless or wasted :-)
Excellent, J.M. Elliot. I agree: Save everything. Maybe this approach will help: I keep journals in two ways: Handwritten in bound paper journals and in Word docs. The way I do the docs is each year I create a journal doc; e.g. "Journal 2023" and I date all entries. The journal is not a diary but instead a collection of what I like to call "glimmers" -- thoughts, snatches of dialogue, images. I also copy into this computer journal anything I've scribbled in the bound paper journal. When I'm inventing, I scroll through yearly journal docs. Images, phrases pop out and enter stories, chapters. xo ~ Mary
I love this idea, thanks!
Brilliant idea, Mary
Yes, the big thing is finding them subsequently. I digitised a lot of my notes, but the trouble with that is that when the app goes wrong or gets discontinued the digitised notes are unavailable or unfindable. So I still have the original notebooks, which I leaf through occasionally to see if I come across anything potentially useful.
That's a good point! I'm a hoarder of notebooks. I should make a habit of looking through them more often to see if there is anything useful in there!
I'm so impressed you don't check email in the supermarket!! I have a bad habit of staring at my iPhone while I'm waiting to grab the leeks. I'd really do better to leave it at home. But my local Whole Foods requires me to "scan in" with my Amazon Prime code so it can follow me around with cameras. So much less romantic than how I'm imagining your grocery shopping across the pond!
Well, Alicia, we can't get a signal in our supermarket, which is why I don't check email. I probably would if I could. In the supermarket I use they have a scanner thing, so you scan your loyalty card with it, and a message pops up saying "Welcome back, Terry". (I think the name part might differ between people. It would be worrying if you, for instance, got a message saying 'Welcome back, Terry'). Then I zap the barcodes with the scanner, which automatically adds up the total bill. Once I've recovered from the mild heart attack which that induces, I go to a till, zap the barcode on the till, pay and race out. So, as you can see, a deeply romantic experience!
Fab explanation. Got, Terry!
Such a fascinating post - thanks Terry and Mary!
I've learned absolutely loads - it's always interesting to read about the writing process of others, and this was no exception.
That 'last sentence' technique is something that I like a lot - often I don't know where my writing's going until I've got to the end, so my technique is then to nip back to the top of the page and sow a seed for the ending, after the fact.
Do you make notes while you're thinking, Terry? I've got the supermarket in mind, here - if you're busy filling your trolley with tangerines aren't you worried that you might not be capturing your thoughts as you go along?
I'm saving this post to read again - there are some absolute gems of writing tools in there! Thank you so much!
Thanks very much, Rebecca. May I say, first of all, that I have copyrighted the phrases "opening sentence", "closing sentence", "last sentence", and the expression "And what will be YOUR last sentence today?"
I sometimes stop to make a note while I'm thinking, but as my aim is usually to get out of the supermarket as soon as possible I often try some sort of association technique. For example, I might put a packet of something in the trolley upside down, or a leaflet in my top pocket. When I come to those things I remember the idea I had. It usually works. :-)
🤣 Duly noted!
That's a great technique for aides-memoires, Terry - good thinking! Well, good thinking unless you spill the contents of that packet of lentils you've just turned upside down, that is!
I'm always impressed with people who use association to recall things - sadly, I'm not one of them. In fact, nor am I an in-person grocery shopper - supermarkets are the most anxiety-inducing places ever invented. I'm officially allergic.
Yeah, well, no system is perfect 😂 I find supermarkets strangely calming apart from when I find myself blocked by someone who somehow manages to take up the whole width of an aisle
Lol. I learnt my lesson from receiving an overdue notice from the library. It was a book on memory techniques -- I'd forgotten I'd taken it out. No word of a lie!
You make me laugh! xo
Hi, Rebecca, I'm sure Terry will answer your questions shortly. I add that, like first sentences, last sentences are key. I don't write toward a last sentence because getting to the ending includes for me "not knowing" as I strive for both surprise and inevitability on the journey of invention.
I often - mostly! - don't know how a piece of writing is going to end until I get there - although I have to say that in my case this isn't deliberate! Once I've got to my last sentence I go back to leave a breadcrumb or two earlier in the text - when I remember, that is!
So you 'get lost' in the narrative you? 😂
🤣
I should have mentioned in the article, I sometimes ditch the sentence or 'seed' that caused me to get writing the piece in the first place: a case of murdering your darlings
I, oh dear, too often! find that my last sentence needs to be cut--horrors 🥰-- when I review what I've written -- so totally with you on this aspect of that last task: editing that is, and as I love to repeat this: Invention first. Editing is a secondary task. ~ Mary
Yes, but sometimes with me the 'seed' is a really funny but scathing sentence voicing an opinion about something, like a book. But when it comes to including that scathing sentence in the piece once I've written it, I often decide that it doesn't actually add anything of value after all. Its only value was getting me started on the piece in the first place. A kind of literary McGuffin