Hello out there in TV Land! The Writing Wizard is back with some short pieces of advice about time-management and self-confidence during the writing process.
All too often, I hear students bemoan the time they “waste” on “unproductive” habits while working: generating sloppy first drafts that just end up in the trash bin; doing too many other things simultaneously with writing like checking the news or chatting and updating Facebook; editing before a full draft is done and then, later, realizing that the edited parts still need to get thrown out and reworked. I am often asked how students can avoid these behaviors in order to become lean, mean, copy-producing machines. The answer might surprise you. I do not personally feel that a little Gmail and YouTube thrown into the term paper cocktail ruins the flavor, nor do I think that working through some really rough first drafts counts as wasted time. The issue isn’t the activities themselves, but rather their perception and implementation.
To explain: taking breaks is good. Writing rough copy is good. Editing when the inspiration hits is good. But front-loading any of these things too much, or investing too heavily in them, is bad.
Indeed, recent research (check it out! http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110208131529.htm) has shown that short breaks during long cognitive tasks actually improve performance and boost energy. And anyone who has ever had an “Aha!” moment in front of a blinking cursor knows that the words already on the page are exactly what you needed to say before you could say what you meant to say all along. A little procrastinating can go a long way, and a few paragraphs of word-vomit can help clear cobwebs from the mind; what matters is how you see these actions in the context of your larger work.
If you spend the entire paper-writing process with six windows open on your desktop so that your mind is simultaneously writing a paper, buying theater tickets, checking the game and discovering whom among your friends is on safari in Africa thanks to the snappy Instagram photos, then you’re approaching the idea of the “break” from the wrong angle.
Every hour or 90 minutes, go ahead and give yourself ten minutes to do all of those things – minus the paper-writing part. Set an egg timer so that you don’t get caught up indefinitely in the World Wide Web, and when it rings, get up from your chair, circle the room, rub your eyes and come back to your paper. Once you’ve gotten your Internet craving out of your system, you’ll be ready to tackle your paper again with enhanced focus. And as the clock ticks, you can look forward to your next break as a reward for your current diligence and attention.
The same holds true for the first drafts. Getting hung up on the poor quality of your initial writing can only lock you into a distressing and invasive thought pattern – “Why am I so bad at this? What am I trying to say? Why can’t I say what I mean? How do I fix this?” and so on.
You should accept from the beginning that the first few ideas you put on paper aren’t going to make it to the final draft. Assume that you won’t hit your stride with the first step, and work through the first few paragraphs with more investment in their existence than in their message – that is, be enthused that you are writing, not critical of what you’re saying. There will be plenty of time later for the rigorous editing you’ll need to take your ideas and sharpen them up.
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