The Process of Writing
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This is a non-fiction piece of writing about the process of writing. Set as a task during Creative Writing Club, I took it home, typed it up, finished and improved this piece.
The Process of... Writing (deep sigh)
The process of writing is long and tedious and repetitive and, at the best of times, boring. It is laborious. It is self-induced labour! (Not the pregnancy kind, although it is just as painful). The amount of effort put into putting words on paper is a ridiculously huge fraction compared the amount of effort I put into my appearance and other seemingly important things. Organising thoughts and ideas and individual words into different folders and sections in my mind is exhausting. The “process of writing” is difficult.
I open up a new word document. No, wait, I log off my laptop and move to my iMac. I’m feeling fancy today, I’d like to write in Pages. I turn on the computer, click on my icon, type in my password. I’m in. I roll my mouse over the purple ink and pen icon and open up a new, blank document. Portrait, obviously. I take my time choosing the font, the spacing, the size of the text, size of the page, the color scheme and then I check my emails, my twitter, my tumblr, I glance at facebook and check on my youtube and glide my mouse over to the blue and silver iTunes icon and watch it bounce for a few seconds until the pages opens up and I take my time again choosing the perfect artist, album or song that I think will suit this non-existent piece of writing best. Three hours later and the document is still empty. I repeat this process.
Finally, I decide of the first word. “The”. Backspace x3. Nope. The back space key is feeling a little sticky. I inspect my keyboard and then my mouse and look back up to the monitor only to see that the page is still yet to be filled. The words are there but they aren’t flowing. The music plays but I’m not listening. Only thinking, about a better word to start a sentence with. A determiner or a pronoun? Or maybe a verb? A sentence with inverted syntax? Passive or active? A prologue? Or in media res? Another 2 hours pass and still, the document is empty. I close the pages and shut off my computer and my mind for yet another silent night. Tomorrow this process repeats.
This process, the process of writing is written about explicitly but in actuality, it isn’t. In fact, it is extremely implicit. In all the action, the movements, the slightest twitch of a character’s nose as to be completely and utterly metaphorical. The twitch of the nose must be a metaphor for life, and how it can react and change to anything it is subjected to. Everything is deliberate. The room is dark, bad things will happen. Light enters the room, good things will happen. Everything must mean something. This is what makes the process of writing so difficult. Even the sentence structure holds connotations of its own. One can only hope that its audience are collectively intelligent enough to figure it out.
The process of writing is long and tedious and repetitive and, at the best of times, boring. But when you get started you can’t stop and then when you do stop you are so relieved and you can’t help but wonder why you didn’t start earlier. So, yes, the process of writing is hard but it is worth it.
Chloe Mushington
The Process of... Writing (deep sigh)
The process of writing is long and tedious and repetitive and, at the best of times, boring. It is laborious. It is self-induced labour! (Not the pregnancy kind, although it is just as painful). The amount of effort put into putting words on paper is a ridiculously huge fraction compared the amount of effort I put into my appearance and other seemingly important things. Organising thoughts and ideas and individual words into different folders and sections in my mind is exhausting. The “process of writing” is difficult.
I open up a new word document. No, wait, I log off my laptop and move to my iMac. I’m feeling fancy today, I’d like to write in Pages. I turn on the computer, click on my icon, type in my password. I’m in. I roll my mouse over the purple ink and pen icon and open up a new, blank document. Portrait, obviously. I take my time choosing the font, the spacing, the size of the text, size of the page, the color scheme and then I check my emails, my twitter, my tumblr, I glance at facebook and check on my youtube and glide my mouse over to the blue and silver iTunes icon and watch it bounce for a few seconds until the pages opens up and I take my time again choosing the perfect artist, album or song that I think will suit this non-existent piece of writing best. Three hours later and the document is still empty. I repeat this process.
Finally, I decide of the first word. “The”. Backspace x3. Nope. The back space key is feeling a little sticky. I inspect my keyboard and then my mouse and look back up to the monitor only to see that the page is still yet to be filled. The words are there but they aren’t flowing. The music plays but I’m not listening. Only thinking, about a better word to start a sentence with. A determiner or a pronoun? Or maybe a verb? A sentence with inverted syntax? Passive or active? A prologue? Or in media res? Another 2 hours pass and still, the document is empty. I close the pages and shut off my computer and my mind for yet another silent night. Tomorrow this process repeats.
This process, the process of writing is written about explicitly but in actuality, it isn’t. In fact, it is extremely implicit. In all the action, the movements, the slightest twitch of a character’s nose as to be completely and utterly metaphorical. The twitch of the nose must be a metaphor for life, and how it can react and change to anything it is subjected to. Everything is deliberate. The room is dark, bad things will happen. Light enters the room, good things will happen. Everything must mean something. This is what makes the process of writing so difficult. Even the sentence structure holds connotations of its own. One can only hope that its audience are collectively intelligent enough to figure it out.
The process of writing is long and tedious and repetitive and, at the best of times, boring. But when you get started you can’t stop and then when you do stop you are so relieved and you can’t help but wonder why you didn’t start earlier. So, yes, the process of writing is hard but it is worth it.
Chloe Mushington
