N.O. Pundit

Write On Time

Writing has a time component. For those who don't write, or are learning to write (me), write when the idea or emotion is first present. Why? Because writing is not solely an iterative process.

What does that mean? When I have an idea or a brainstorm or an emotional recollection, the common notion is that writing the thought down is iterative. You take the thing from your brain and put it on paper. A one-off iteration. True perhaps. Writing however is so much more. It just happened to me now: an instance of the generative nature of writing.

What does that mean? It means that when you are iterating the thoughts and notions that first inspired you to write (ie, taking the thing from your brain and putting it on paper), new thoughts and notions are generated. What was my generative event? That iterating from a mental image or emotion to a crafted sentence is clearly and necessarily a never-perfect recordation of the original. Why? We think in pictures, we are moved by emotions; these are not natively textual events, simply to be recorded. They must be interpreted by our "semantics machine" before some semblance of the event can be captured in words. It is in this "semantics machine" that new thoughts are generated.

In addition to the iterative and generative components to writing, there is a third which is perhaps more time-sensitive than the other two: the cathartic nature of writing. I don't believe I have read a "success" author that did not include writing things down (goals, self-perceptions, mission statements, etc.). What happens when you write down a goal? You cease being the goal. What happens when you write an "anger letter"? You cease being the anger. If all of your goals, prejudices, ideas, are swirling around in your brain, where does your "self" end and those "things" begin? It is hard to find the boundary. Place those "things" outside of your "self" and you can begin to see what you are not, and who you are.

So why "write on time"? When you find yourself in that "inspired" moment to capture an idea in words, you are also primed to have unique generative and cathartic writing events. As you depart from the "inspired" moment without writing, the generative and cathartic gems depart with it. Here's the kicker: you can (and quite frankly should) go back and attempt to recreate the "inspired" moment, but you will never, ever know what you truly lost.

Posted by nopundit at February 23, 2004 12:13 PM