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Thinking Out Loud: Andrew's Blog

How I Write

6/11/2014

4 Comments

 
Wanting to contribute to what I consider to be a very good idea, I thought I would take a stab at this. (See the button below this post)

How I write anything at all is actually a mystery to me and that I write anything at all pretty much astounds me. So I don't know how coherent or helpful this will be.

I have always heard that writing is rewriting, something that is not in my nature in a conventional sense. My writing is pretty much what the title of my Blog says, just “Thinking Out Loud.” I am a hunt and peck typist. So, often I write with paper and pen/pencil to keep up with the flow of thoughts. Then I rewrite and rearrange as I type my masterpiece into a digital and legible form. I have many such scribbles to yet be transferred to the cyber world.

Most of my best stuff never makes it to the paper stage because I write a lot in my head before I drift off to sleep. I call it my best stuff because no one can find fault with it and I know it was perfect, but just... could... not... manage... to... get... up... to... zzzzz.

I apologize that this is not all that helpful, but I did not know what I was going to write when I sat down. I am not usually that good at completing an assignment, especially when it calls for reflection on myself. Age is not that fond of mirrors. Maybe honesty is not always the best policy? Or maybe this is just a warmup and future posts will be better.

In the final analysis, for me, the key to writing is to write, and write a lot, hit save often, and keep the circular file nearby, but use it sparingly. You can never get back what you throw away, and, if you are like me, you can never satisfactorily reconstruct what you originally wrote.

wheregivinghappens.com
4 Comments
Joel
6/11/2014 02:01:27 pm

Hi Dad,

One of the writing styles I appreciate most is the letter response, which I know best in C.S. Lewis' "Screwtape Letters" and "Letters to Malcolm." And I have always thought that this is an area of strength for you. I remember hearing actual conversations and reading written conversations between you and someone else that were deeply informative because through a call-and-response style you developed and expanded upon an idea until what had been a small statement or single sentence became a fully developed idea/essay/story.

When I think about how you write, I think about how you think. I think about all the bulletins that are dark with writing by the end of a church service as you begin to develop a train of thought in response to an idea or statement given by the preacher.

I agree that you are not an editor or reviser in writing style. I think you are a developer... or maybe a scientist. You take that idea, mentally set it in front of you, and poke and prod, push and pull, twist and rotate it to view it from different angles. And your writing reflects that by taking us on an exploratory journey.

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AD
6/11/2014 04:40:07 pm

Thanks. I take that as a great compliment, and accurate, and a well written one as well.

Those AOL chat statements were mainly teasers or bait. Guess that is my favorite MO in fishing. I love that kind of fishing.

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Emily link
6/12/2014 02:26:33 pm

I was able to see myself in so much of what you wrote here! I am not a "hunt and peck typist" but I have found that still my thoughts flow in a different way when I write on paper (and I like it). I used to exclusively write the first draft of anything with pen and paper and then "rewrite and arrange" as I typed as well. I don't so much anymore because some little people draw on/with or eat the pens and paper. Or my husband takes the notebook I have been using and I cannot find it! So, I have learned to type for the most part, but I still cherish writing with a pen.

I find it so frustrating when I cannot reconstruct something previously written and not saved, which I never can and so I think writing often and hitting the save button is certainly sound advice!

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AD
6/13/2014 01:05:33 am

Thanks for the response. Always good to know others can identify.

I have tried the near-sleep-perfect-author-experience solution of keeping a pad by the bed and writing down my thoughts before they can escape.

That, however wakes me up, which is no problem if I don't care about my day job. So, for the present, for the sake of my family, I have suspended that practice.

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    Andrew Duncan

    Deep calls unto deep, while the world in shallow sleep, awaits the coming dawn.

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