Personal Reflections on Creative Writing

Personal Reflections on Creative Writing

My participation in this writing course has helped me identify three specific elements of my writing process that have always made it more difficult than necessary for me to express my ideas in written form. In retrospect, I have encountered these three obstacles as long as I can remember, since the first time I was assigned a writing project in grade school. By recognizing their effect on my writing process, I hope to overcome them in the future.

Identifying Writing Obstacles and Implementing Solutions:

Because I do not write much recreationally, most of my writing experience has related to academic assignments. As a student, my daily schedule has always been somewhat hectic. Ever since grade school, I have usually done most of my non- classroom academic work at approximately the same time of day during the week, and on Sunday afternoons. Many times, in the case of writing assignments, I have experienced so-called "writer's block." After so many repeated instances early in my academic career, eventually I assumed that writing was very difficult for me.

Several times, I gave up after more than hour of trying to write without getting a single usable sentence on paper.

On more than one occasion, I had the frustrating experience of giving up trying to write an essay, only to get all sorts of good ideas for specific points for the essay at times when it was inconvenient or impossible to put them on paper. Driving and showering are two typical examples that come to mind. Eventually, I decided to carry a small notepad with me at all times, and I also keep one next to my bed and another one in my car. I started making an effort to put my thoughts on paper, even if that means pulling over for a few minutes while driving or turning on a light in the middle of the night if something comes to mind while I am drifting in and out of sleep. I have even opened the shower door to write down an idea with water dripping from my arm. Since beginning this habit, I have begun to realize that much of my writer's block" was more a function of trying to schedule a time for writing instead of catching some of the unpredictable opportunities that the "mood" strikes me spontaneously. The notes of my unscheduled brainstorming sessions helped me overcome writer's block and also helped me solve another difficulty that I have identified in my writing process.

Before talking this course, I used to try to free-write my assignments in one continuous essay starting with the first sentence of the introduction all the way through to the last sentence of the conclusion. Drafting an outline is not something that came naturally to me, and I have always resisted trying to write by drafting an outline first. As it turned out, the notes that I collect from jotting down my spontaneous thoughts in the shower and while driving become an outline, almost by themselves. Even when my notes are more about one or two specific ideas, the process of copying them and developing them into complete sentences helps me think of ideas for introducing those ideas and for developing subsequent parts of the essay.

The third obstacle that I have identified is the difference between writer's block that has to do with my writing process and writer's block that is less about my writing and more about trying to write before devoting time to thinking about the assignment first. Like everyone else, I also find some subjects are interesting to me while others are not because they are assigned courses. This was much more true before college, when all my courses were assigned, but it also applies to writing assignments in assigned college courses.

I have learned that it is important for me to spend time thinking about the subject matter without worrying about the writing assignment. Naturally, this is easier when the subject is something interesting to me, especially if I have already thought about the material even before it came up in an academic setting. In terms of my writing process, this is even more important when the subject matter is not particularly interesting to me. In those cases, I have learned that it is important to read the relevant material first, also without thinking about the writing portion of the assignment. Whether writing about subjects I find interesting or those assignments that are outside of my personal interests, it is important for me to spend time thinking about the subject matter, but without worrying about the actual writing of the essay.

Conclusion:

The combined effect of the three obstacles that I identified in my writing process is more than the mere sum of their effects individually. Before I recognized them for what they are, I had come to believe that I was incapable of writing. This completely undermined any confidence and resulted in my belief that I could not improve my essay writing abilities.