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| Drummond, Sharon "Writer's Block" 4/3/10 via Flickr Non-commercial License |
1. What sort of writer am I?
I believe my writing style is that of a heavy reviser. I believe you can take an essay or other piece of writing that you essentially come up with on a whim or in a short amount of time or without much thought and, through the use of careful and continued revision, improve it to the point of excellence.
2. Do I apply multiple approaches to my writing?
I would say that I mostly do not. I think "heavy reviser" describes my writing style very well. As everyone does, I can procrastinate from time. Also, though only very occasionally, I will spend an inordinate amount of time planning my writing as would a "heavy planner" and thus only will subsequently only write one draft and proofread it.
3. Does your writing process appear to be successful? What are its strengths and weaknesses?
I believe my writing process is mostly successful. I think writing in the style of a "heavy reviser" spreads out the load of writing very well as you have many individual drafts to improve though it does perhaps increase overall workload. It's basically like a loan, the more time and effort you spend (the more you pay) upfront to create a better first draft, the less effort you have to spend revising it into a final product (the less you ultimately pay).
4. Do you think it would be beneficial for you to try a different approach? Why or why not?
Ultimately, I do not think it would be beneficial for me to try a different approach. I think being a "heavy reviser" is the best for me as it allows me to spread the writing process out over a period of time. Of course, the ultimate goal is to perfectly balance the amount of work spent on the first draft and the amount spent on revisions in order to gain maximum success with minimum time expended.
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Reading other's reflections, I had a surprising realization. Not everyone is satisfied with their writing process. This surprised me somewhat because I had previously thought everyone has a system that works perfectly for them and I'm just an anomaly. I read both a reflection of a writing style similar to mine and of one wholly different. I think that my goal in the future would be to include some more planning (such as in Chloe's reflection) but after reading Evan's piece, I was pleasantly surprised by his appreciation for his own writing style (similar to mine) in that it may be somewhat flawed but it works for him (and me). As such, I would attempt some more planning but ultimately I am fairly happy with where I am. Additionally, Evan explored some more reasons why he likes a heavy revision style of writing which I also connected to.
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Reading other's reflections, I had a surprising realization. Not everyone is satisfied with their writing process. This surprised me somewhat because I had previously thought everyone has a system that works perfectly for them and I'm just an anomaly. I read both a reflection of a writing style similar to mine and of one wholly different. I think that my goal in the future would be to include some more planning (such as in Chloe's reflection) but after reading Evan's piece, I was pleasantly surprised by his appreciation for his own writing style (similar to mine) in that it may be somewhat flawed but it works for him (and me). As such, I would attempt some more planning but ultimately I am fairly happy with where I am. Additionally, Evan explored some more reasons why he likes a heavy revision style of writing which I also connected to.
I can tell you are reluctant to changing your writing process which I see no problem in. If I were you I would most definitely want to change it up a little. Only being a heavy revisor calls for a lot of work as you mention. However if you are perfectly okay with that then I see no problem with that at all. For me that is the reason I like to plan ahead some when it comes to my writing. I have never been fond of too much work. I find your comparison to a loan very compelling and credit you for being able to handle all that revising when it comes to the writing process. That can't be a lot of fun. Although I plan ahead somewhat I can still relate to your writing process because in the end I do end up changing a lot of what I had planned ahead. Heavy revising isn't all that fun but I do agree it creates a very nice ending product.
ReplyDeleteI myself am a heavy revisor and I agree with William in the fact that it's important to try to expand on our approach simply because it can be a lot of work. Based on your final paragraph, you seem to care about efficiency and optimizing your time and I've found that just a little bit of sequential composing can cut back on a lot of revision time. Simply jotting down three or four ideas you want to touch down on in the writing has helped me to organize the order of my thoughts and avoid reordering ideas to be more fluid later in the writing process.
DeleteI was slightly similar to you during my high school years, but you were a heavy reviser with a dash of procrastinator, whereas I was a procrastinator with a dash of heavy reviser. I could never do what you do because it involves putting in so much more time than I usually would, but there are also many benefits to it. I can see how your writing process would reap rewards, and I want to aspire to accomplish things in your fashion. I would enjoy being even a little bit more on top of my work. I agree with you that in the perfect world, balancing time would be super easy and would work out perfectly every time.
ReplyDeleteHave the weekly blog posts changed your thoughts at all about being a "heavy reviser"?
ReplyDeleteIn your answer to the last question you said "the ultimate goal is to perfectly balance the amount of work spent on the first draft and the amount spent on revisions in order to gain maximum success with minimum time expended". Have you found that this has worked as well in college as it has in the past for you? Or did you have to change this thought process in order to effectively improve your writing?
I liked how in your reflection you came across a realization. That being said, did you reach your goal of doing more heavy planning and do you think that helped you? Or did you just stick with what you're comfortable with?