Every writer has bad habits. It’s trying to fix and break those habits; which is the hard part. I personally have two big bad habits – I’m probably being modest in only naming two, but oh well! I only found two that were easy to explain and work with in this class this semester. My too bad habits of writing are my first drafts and my writing styles.
Your first draft shouldn’t be bad; but not too good either. You should strive to make your first draft is just that: your first draft. If you put too much thought into your first draft you won’t be able to achieve the best second draft or third draft and so on and so forth. That seems to be my main problem. I always put way too much thought into my first draft. I always seem to write down something and I have to go back and read it before I move on. In doing so, I make my first and second draft at the same time. I am very over critical of myself in my writing and in everything I do. My hope is this semester to break a lot of my bad habits in my writing. I want to make sure that I get the most out my writing and editing skills by not over achieving my first time through.
Another real big problem I have in my writing is I always seem to change the style somewhere in the middle. For example; if I was first using quotes to establish a conversation in my writing, more than likely I will easy out of that to make the conversations mainly inside the mind of the main character or speaker. Using “she told me that . . .” or “he said it would be better if I . . .” without making a full dialog in my writing. Somehow I find one easier at the beginning of my writing and the second towards the end of my writing. Making my papers and stories hard to follow and confusing at times. I’ve been told that my work is good; I just need to keep my writing style to one style. Trying not to switch somewhere in the middle.
I’m hoping the feedback this semester from my classmates and our professor will help me in breaking my “bad habits in writing.” I also will be thinking a little more about what not do to. That might do more harm than good but I have to at least try to make a stronger effort to change the way my writing works and tells the story.
- David J Scalea
Hey David,
ReplyDeleteI can relate to your personal problems with writing, especially the first. I think the key to writing that not-too-perfect first draft is simply practice. The concept of freewriting is difficult for me--just write down whatever comes to mind nonstop? Putting a constant current of flooding thoughts onto paper is difficult for the perfectionists; however, starting from an unfocused point and continuing to write somehow often leads the writing to a more narrow, focused idea. I suggest practicing letting your thoughts flow freely to paper and seeing how your uncaged creativity leads to a more "successful" work.
-Jackie
David - While I would have liked to have heard more about your idea of "success" in writing and reading in general from the prompt, you've brought up a few very interesting (and common!) issues that many writers struggle with. I look forward to talking about some of these next week!
ReplyDelete- Jessica