Investing in the Writing Process
Are you a front-end load writer or a back-end load writer?
Writing is a skill that can be learned. Nobody is born knowing how to write. We must learn the brute mechanics of holding a writing instrument, making letters, making words, stringing words together into phrases and sentences and paragraphs, and whole texts.
Learning to write is similar to other mechanical skills, like playing the piano, learning to swim, or learning to code. All require manipulating something else with your body and mind. The more you practice the activity, the better you get. Also, writers rarely work alone. They collaborate with colleagues and work with copy-editors, editors, and publishers.
But somehow, a mystique remains about writing that people are born writers, lone geniuses who have a natural talent, a gift handed down from the heavens. In actuality, writing is a skill that writers learn through hard work, persistence, practice, and collaboration.
The currency of writing: time and effort
The basic currency of writing is time and effort. As a writing instructor, it was impossible for me to quantify effort. I graded final products, not process. Short of cheating and plagiarism, how students got to that final product was up to them. I can’t say Susan‘s effort was better than Karen’s. And even individually, Susan may have a good effort one day and difficult time writing the next. The key to success in writing — or in any endeavor in life— is to minimize the bad days.
The basic currency of writing is time and effort.
We can make some claims, however, about time and effort: Susan may produce 500 words in one hour, while Karen may produce 2,000 words in one hour. By one measure, i.e., the number of words, Karen has produced a greater effort. That’s misleading, however. Susan may have produced a much more polished 500 words than Karen’s 2,000 words. Susan may be closer to the finish line than Karen, having paid up front in thinking and planning and thus minimizing the need for extensive revision. Karen may have produced more words than Susan in one hour, but her work may be just beginning. She may need to revise and edit extensively those 2,000…
