What is it that motivates you to write? What is your process?
I write in several ways. If it is an assignment or project that I'm not particularly excited about, I still just dive in and try to give it my best, though I may procrastinate for a bit. I have strong opinions about a lot of things and love to create with my words, so I am seldom stuck for ideas. When I do run up against a wall, I walk away from the piece for awhile and get a different perspective. Then I come back to tackle it afresh.
A lot of my best ideas come as flashes of inspiration. If I don't get it down then and there, or at least the core ideas, the flashes often fade. That's why I keep journals and am the post-it note queen. I also write ideas down on napkins and checks or whatever is handy.
I think sometimes people stumble along in writing because they do not have a basic grasp of grammar and punctuation or perhaps even an adequate vocabulary. I read grammar books for fun. Obsessive, I know. So that aspect of writing does not slow me down. The hardest time I have, however, is with the re-write.
When I complete a piece and I feel happy with my product, it is hard to look at it dispassionately and start slicing. Even if I make radical nixing (like just automatically dump the first 3 pages) as some suggest, I have a hard time not keeping those pages in a drawer. It is rather like those cultures who feel like you have captured their souls when you take their pictures. That is kind of how I feel about some of my writing. If I sincerely put myself into those pages, I just can't pretend they never happened. They are in some way a part of me. Sick, right? The same is true of songs. They end up in a file or in a drawer, waiting to be reworked and re-born.
My kids are going to have so much fun sorting through the detritus of my life!
So what motivates you to write? What is your process? How do you re-write? Is it painful?
