#3 Writing involves transferring thoughts from the mind to paper.
As Smith explains, writing often leads to ideas. I usually go into a paper thinking one thing, but end up writing about something a bit different once I get started. I am constantly thinking of extensions of what I'm saying or deciding that the thing I thought was interesting is actually boring to write about. Writing is almost a conversation with yourself, which leads to a lot of idea generation for me. I struggle most when I have a list of ideas I want to put on the page but can't quite get right.
#10 Writing is learned by writing.
I used to believe this myth. I thought I could write and write and write and be a great writer. My writing definitely improved over this time, but I eventually realized that the people I most admired as writers did a lot more reading than I did. They had much better active vocabularies, yes, but more importantly, they had an ear for what words are supposed to sound like coming off the page. The more I read, particularly in poetry, the more I absorbed. Even though I don't emulate everything I read, I think I have a better feeling of writing than I used to have.
#13 Writing should be easy.
This goes along with #7. There was a time when I thought the best writers just had the gift to write, while the rest of us were stuck revising our poor writing. I didn't think writing was hard for good writers, only for me. Eventually, I realized writing is hard for everyone. The best way for me to think of this was to compare great writers to great athletes. While most were given size, coordination, and athleticism, there were still countless hours put into honing those predispositions. The idea that writing is easy or writers are just great at writing is as realistic as the idea that LeBron James would be a great basketball player without staying in shape, practicing his shooting or dribbling, or watching film.
Honorable mention:
#16 (because it states that writing itself can be prewriting)
#5 (because writing is never linear for me- I'm all over the place when I sit down and write)
This is a great post - I love how you dispel these myths by using your own experience.
ReplyDelete#13 struck a chord with me as well. I feel like teachers don't teach writing thoroughly enough, then skip to interpreting literature and expect that we already have the ability to write exactly what we know and think about a text.
As much as I agree with both you and Smith that these ideas constitute myths, I still feel that if we ONLY look at them this way, we'll end up "throwing the baby out with the bath water." This is obviously more true for some than for others (for example, only "uniquely special" people can write is complete BS). For example: "Writing is learned by writing" is kind of pigeon holing the issues, I still firmly believe that the BEST way to learn how to write better is to write. Just as the best way to learn how to read better is to read. I guess I just don't like absolute statements, not to say that either you or Smith is doing this, but I just can see how his words could be bent and twisted to mean something he did not intend.
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