Reading Reactions

Freewriting Exercises

Yaaaaay 37 pages of reading

I'm sorry that was rude

I don't think I really like anything enough that doing it 3 times a week wouldn't dampen my enjoyment of it.

Though the narrower timeframe of like 10 minutes would probably help.

I fear that if I did freewriting some truely unhinged thoughts might leak their way onto my page.

I may actually have moved past this block already. A lot of my papers are just free-flow thoughts on the subject from things I've read. I really barely edit my work at all.

Though this probably ties back into the whole thing about getting stuck on the exact right word for a situation, I do still do that a bunch

More of the issue is that I have no idea what I'd want for my "finished product" to be. I feel like perhaps my actions are too preformative these days.

I'll try this sometime in the near future though. I'll let you see it if it's any good.

The Process of Writing-Growing

I wish I could remember how my writing process started. The earliest work I can remember is one I got widely praised on, but surely that can't be how it started.

No wait, the one I mentioned previously that I just wrote garbage to hit a word limit might have predated that. My memories of grade school are a little hazy.

"Pretend" we don't believe in gods. When was this written?

This is an issue basically any skill (but especially the arts) runs into where people will attribute it to some god-given talent instead of the hard work of the individual. Anyone can learn any skill if you put time into it.

Though piano does come to mind as something you have to start young to develop "piano fingers" for. Similar with ballet.

There's an interesting mindset problem to some of this too. I feel bad about using chatgpt, even if I'm using a local instance and it's just for the web development end of this, So I'm trying to do as much of it as I can myself, and have resolved to take an actual css/html course after the fact. But some people just love that they don't have to actually learn any new skills.

Skiing vs studies is so real actually. Switch 2 vs Studies for me.

"Stuckpoints" does this somehow predate the term "writer's block"?

"write out like you're talking to someone" is just remarkably similar to how I write most of my papers. And this, if you couldn't tell.

The change of perspective strategy is kind of interesting. I might have to try that soon.

I'm way to vulnerable to wanting to confirm my own biases in my writings. Surely this is because I only have correct opinions, and no other reason :^)

That comment about "pretending" to not believe in gods could've been tongue in cheek actually

I've heard of non-linear writing before, but it's never really "clicked" for me. It might be the passive re-ordering of thoughts that happens during my automatic writing.

Oh hey there's the thing about finding the perfect word again.

It's weird to think that I might be better adjusted for writing than some writers out there, including the guy writing this passage. He seems to have more hangups than I ever have.

Sticking to a plan can definitly be the death of creativity, I agree with that much

This could be useful for the development of theory too, with the dialogue opened by his numbered list at the end. Particularly the first three or so.

there is a certain amount of self-awareness that I don't think was really talked about that goes into all of this too.

The Question (Specifically the Third One)

We actually seem quite similar in our writing sensibilities, this author and I. We're both very big proponents of the "stream of consciousness" sort of writing for the larger bodies of our paper, and we both don't worry too much about editing until the bulk of the thing is written. I can't say that I've really expereienced too much difficulty when it comes to things like writing the beginning before the end. Maybe in larger story structures it'd be more helpful, but for right now, where most of my assignments are short essays, the conclusion flows naturally as a part of all that I have written before it. This could most closely resemble his numbered list at the end, however. Writing growing through the development of the text, and finding "Y and Z" on that path. Conversly, none of the concepts really "clash" with my own view of writing, it's just that things that he tends to stumble on have never really been issues for me. Either through years of development, either as a writer, or through other aspects of my mindset developed outside of writing. I'd certainly like to have a conversation with him regardless. And only partially because his last name is "Elbow". :P