Thursday, February 17, 2011

More on Writing


Write. Even if it's no good. You don't have to show people everything you write. Writing has more purposes than just recording something to be read. I'm all for free-writing. (Don't, you know, turn it in and call it an academic essay. But don't be afraid to just WRITE first and refine later, instead of trying to do them both at once.)

"Would God have given us a mind if he'd wanted us to waste all this paper writing down what's wrong or badly put? But that internal thinking process lacks a dimension which writing provides. When we just think inside our heads, the cycle of language is incomplete; we are prey to obsession. The thoughts, sentences, images, or feelings that play in our heads continue to play round and round. But when we write down those thoughts or feelings, the sterile circle is often broken: they have a place on paper now; they evolve into another thought or even fade away. Writing is a way to get what is inside one's head outside, on paper, so there's room for more."
--Peter Elbow, "The Shifting Relationships Between Speech and Writing"

Writing is the Muggle Pensieve.

7 comments:

kate said...

this post and the previous one are so great. you remind me of mt grandma but not in a grandmother sort of way but in her love for words and writing. she has notebooks filled with poems and stories. you'd like her.

kate said...

ha. ha. "my" grandma not mt grandma. though if there were a mt. grandma i might like to visit!

Liz said...

Ha ha! The next mountain I discover I will call Mt. Grandma.

Jacqueline Francis said...

i love these two posts. when i write about things other than myself i feel so good and roomy in my brain. thank yewww!

Sandy Leonard Snaps said...

I like your blog a great deal. I came upon it by accident today by clicking "Next Blog" at the top of mine. From now on, I'll return deliberately.
Please check out my blog, too, OK?
Greetings from Boston.
-Sandy
www.sandyleonardsnaps.blogspot.com

Maxi's Kitchen said...

hey Liz. I think I am hooked on the Liz-a-nator. I love your writing.

Dreamcatcher said...

totally agree! writing is more than living.. its being conscious of living...