Thinking isn\u2019t writing.
\nOutlining isn\u2019t writing.
\nResearch isn\u2019t writing.
\nRewriting isn\u2019t writing.<\/p>\n
Putting pen to paper is writing.<\/p><\/div>\n
Really.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s odd, because I\u2019ve been writing in my head for years, starting circa fifth grade when I couldn\u2019t understand the concept of an outline, but could construct a well-organized essay in my head after a great deal of reading, assimilating, and thinking. When I finally put pen to paper, the work was already done.<\/p>\n
Get that? The hard part was not done on the paper.<\/em><\/strong> Ever.<\/p>\n And here I am, thirty years, innumerable essays, a gazillion blog posts, a few short stories, a novella or two, a speech or four, two screenplays and one stage play, ten novels, three agents, and a writing degree later, still constructing fairly well organized works in my head, and sometimes after much research. Not only that, but I write out of order.<\/p>\n So I have to put some scenes and ideas down on paper before the story can be fully realized. So what. Let\u2019s face it: a novel is not an essay.<\/p>\n I do a lot of thinking.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t outline as it is understood.<\/p>\n I research.<\/p>\n Then I rewrite. A lot. In my head.<\/p>\n And voila! A novel.<\/p>\n Now, I can write on spec, but I prefer not to. I prefer to take time to assimilate information, to percolate fleshed-out characters and their motives, to ask “Why?” a lot and attempt to plug all the logical fallacies myself, but it gets done.<\/p>\n What I find curious about such assertions is the assumption that that person\u2019s experience is, to him, universal, and then proceeds to instruct the world at large that his way is the only way.<\/p>\n So. Authors. When you get stuck wandering around the \u2019net gathering advice and feeling guilty because you don\u2019t write “right,” remember this: Writing, like life, is a journey, not a destination. You have to find your own way.<\/p>\n Whatever allows you to produce a finished product works. And why mess with what works?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I saw this in an author post somewhere on the \u2019net: Thinking isn\u2019t writing. Outlining isn\u2019t writing. Research isn\u2019t writing. Rewriting isn\u2019t writing. Putting pen to paper is writing. Really.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[424],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5070"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18536,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070\/revisions\/18536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Two](\"https:\/\/moriahjovan.com\/talesofdunham\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/20110606_constfeedback.jpg\")
<\/p>\n