The Year of Productivity, Part II: Actions

Last week Walden Writing Center staff declared their 2013 writing resolutions on the blog. But we all know resolutions don’t amount to anything without action, right? To achieve their goals, tutors and editors will be following recommendations from past instructors, established writers, and colleagues. You can use these same recommendations to maintain a long project, tweak your writing process, or create better habits. We asked Writing Center staff What is the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

On establishing a writing routine:

Tobias: Write every day. Everything else is secondary, even the health of family and the status of relationships. Period.

Paul: Reward yourself! I don’t know if holding out the lure of cake really gets me to write more, but at least I get cake!

Deanna: Write 2-3 stream-of-consciousness pages daily to fight Writer’s Block, to alleviate Fear of the Blank Page, and to stretch the Write-Brain muscles.

Jen: Write every day. No excuses. Even if it's just a couple of sentence fragments scribbled on the back of an envelope while you're making dinner or changing a diaper or folding laundry. It all counts.

On approaching a topic:

Melanie: I use the funnel to narrow my ideas from general/broad to specific/focused. Readers need background details (my topic’s introduction) earlier in my paper. That introduction gives readers context to understand the more specific issues I want to raise later in my essay. I use the funnel for research, too. I begin with broad library searches and then narrow them with specific keywords as I learn more about my topic. 

Rachel: Write without fear. While I received this advice when I was tackling creative topics (inevitably there are taboos that come up in certain writing environments), I think this is applicable to scholarly writing as well. Sometimes writers are afraid to step out, to risk vulnerability or depth. It is much simpler to skim the surface of a topic, but truth and depth are what make up the nature of good writing.

On choosing words:

Brian: Why are you writing like you know what those words mean? [My freshman comp instructor referencing my poor attempt at an inflated and unnecessary vocabulary.]

Nathan: Quit showing off! – Multiple professors. If there’s a single value that I took away from being an English major, it is that writing needs to have a purpose (to educate, to entertain, or other) that supersedes the demands of style. Back in school, I used to think I was a pretty good writer, but all I was really good at was sounding clever and smart, and my ideas suffered as a result. My professors at school taught me to hone my style to a bare minimum and eliminate all those superfluous rhetorical gestures I had wrongfully associated with “writing skill.” Today I know the purpose of good writing is to be clear and compelling to the reader, not flattering to the writer’s ego. When writing creatively, I try to ask myself this question: Can I make this sentence or idea even simpler? The answer is often yes.

On revising:

Amy: Revise. It is not a novel idea, but it is definitely the most helpful part of the writing process for me. I used to become paralyzed with fear when confronted with a blank page, so my way of getting over that is to vomit words onto the page. The revision process is where I do my best work. I clean up and clarify my thoughts, organization, and grammar.

Sarah: Always have a second set of eyes read over important writing drafts. That second pair of eyes always finds mistakes or clarity issues that seem to make perfect sense in my own mind.