That book, article, or poem you want to write---you know, the one you keep thinking about, keep rolling around in your mind like a candy on the tongue? So long as you are tasting and testing it, chewing it, ruminating on it, you are writing.
Less and less of my writing seems to take place at the computer; that is merely typing. The work is in the taking of time to read, to think, to make notes.
The old saying is true: When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. So it is with writing: when the words are ready, they will come. This does not mean you cannot rehearse them, try them on, work your way into the piece.
This is rarely how we let students work as writers; instead, too many treat writing as if there is only time for the typing, none for the thinking.
So what will you write this year, even if it means turning off the radio to think about it for as long as it takes you to drive to work? And on the way home, furthering working the ideas, till you get home and can harvest that day's word horde onto the bright white page which you can then tweak, revise, rethink entire ly at your leisure over your oatmeal the next morning before driving to work, during which time you can begin again the conversation that leads to the writing you keep saying you want to do.
You do eat a good breakfast, don't you? What better time for the patient, thoughtful work of revision, which is where the real writing begins...
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