My Writing Process

I created this blog to help express myself through my writing during the course of my English 102 course at the University of Arizona. Feel free to edit, comment, and help me gain the knowledge and experience I am seeking through attending the U of A. Oh, and Beardown!

First off, I was asked to write about my writing style and to answer a few questions in one of the textbooks I have started to read for this class. The book is A Student's Guide to First-Year Writing by Kristin Winet, Brad Jacobson, and Madelyn Tucker. I am following along to the questions given on page 47.

1) I consider myself to fall into two of the types of writers as stated on pages 46-7 although I don't believe anyone "belongs" in one or two or three categories I do feel that out of the four types given I could relate to these two categories the most.
The first category I can relate to is the Procrastinator category. Simply put, I don't like to spend a lot of time writing when I could be doing one of the other 800 things I have to do in a day. I am a full time student and a preschool teacher. I am also a proud and loving owner of a bunny; Gracie. Gracie is a four year old Rex rabbit who is my pride and joy. Any previous bunny owner understands how having a rabbit is both time consuming and a great reward. Try having a two year old and puppy in the same room as you for endless eternity and you might start to grasp the idea of having a bun in the family. But do not get me wrong, I don't procrastinate to do nothing else or to simply put off projects. I am extremely responsible. Many times I will start a project hours, days, or even months in advance but I stop before I finish it entirely and then let it sit until the week before it's due. I just don't think it is worth the drawn out process of multiple drafts if it looks good the first time around.
Which brings me to my second category of choice; the Heavy Planners category. I think this category fits my character more because I choose to think about the project or writing prior to touching my pen to paper or my fingers to a keyboard. Like I wrote previously; why write it twice if it can be good the first time through?

2) I think my writing style takes on many different forms depending on multitudes of factors in my life. The biggest factor is the other pressing matters in my life. A prime example of this kind of distraction would be work. I am a part time preschool teacher at Wings on Words a preschool primarily dealing with toddlers ages 2-5 who have communication disorders or delays. I have such a hard passion for what I do that I tend to forget about the rest of the world when I am there. I am sure I am not the only one who would rather play with play-doh and Legos than do homework or an assignment. I find a lot of stress relief from my busy life in the complexity of children. I also am part of a fraternity, camp wildcat club, and more that take up a lot of my time.
Another reason I may procrastinate or treat a piece of writing differently is if the class the assignment is part of is part of my major or not. Most of the time I prioritize assignments, not by when they are due, but instead if they are part of a class I am passionate about or not. If I do not find the class to be as impressive as another I will probably withhold doing the assignments until the very last second. But all in all this process hasn't had any lasting effects on a grade and I personally like how my style fluctuates so easily.

Buissinne, Steve. "Building Blocks Construction Play Toy Colorful". July 13, 2014.
Free for Commercial Use.

3) I think my writing process works for me because it has yet to fail. 'If it ain't broken, don't fix it,' is something I was brought up on in my home in Vermont. Another saying I grew up on was, "There's not a problem in the world you can't fix without the proper application of brute force and duct tape,". But that is for another blog post entirely.

4) Because I fluctuate so nicely between a bunch of these categories, I don't see a point in trying to change or feel structured in one grouping or another. I think writing should be endlessly expressive and imaginative so to put restictions or to force the words and creativity to come earlier than it is ready is a lack of freedom of speech. Something I am constantly helping my preschoolers with is when their words just don't come to them. I have 3 and 4 year olds come to me for help in what we call "finding your words" and I am constantly telling them that sometimes, no matter our age, the words take time to come and don't come right off. It's natural and normal and to pretend otherwise is wrong in my opinion.