Homework 2: Personal Writing Process

Academic writing, for me at least, is relatively simple. Inspiration is not too difficult for me to find in most things, and once I have a general topic or theme I need to discuss, I immediately begin to try and divide it into sub-topics to make the process of streamlining my thoughts and creating a cohesive piece go even more smoothly. It's something I just internalized from my third-grade 'power thinking' notation lesson; the format is usually goes as follows:

-Theme/Topic

--Sub-topic #1
---Evidence in support of topic #1
---Evidence in support of topic #2
---Evidence in support of topic #3

--Sub-topic #2
---Evidence in support of topic #1
---Evidence in support of topic #2
---Evidence in support of topic #3

--Sub-topic #3
---Evidence in support of topic #1
---Evidence in support of topic #2
---Evidence in support of topic #3

--How all the sub-topics tie together

---Evidence

--Conclusion

(If anyone struggles with organizing academic papers, I highly suggest this format.)

However I find that writing fiction or poetry is a completely different process that tends to have no specific structure whatsoever. The best way to describe it is that I just sit down and start writing because an image or phrase really stuck out in my mind, thus I want to try and transcribe it into a more permanent, communicative form. Ink and word, graphite and paper, scribbles and stanzas, all of them are part of the free-form mess that transpires once I have an idea. 

As long as I am comfortable in a space, whether that means a quiet area where I can hear my thoughts clearly or otherwise in a place I won't be intruded upon or interrupted, I can sit down and start writing rather quickly. I have to, lest I lose the muse I'm chasing at that moment. Due to all of this, I have no particular time of day that I favor or assign as 'designated writing time'; it'd be like trying to capture the breeze and stick the gales in a sealed room. What are winds without motion and endless space to fly? Stale, dead air. The same principle applies itself to my thoughts: either I run with the wind at that moment or I lose it altogether. 

Writing is fickle, complicated, and sometimes antagonistic, but for the most part I find it to be immensely satisfying at the end.