How do you approach writing?

[Me-Ike]

The only thing that's usually recommended is that you work regularly at it. Allocate a certain amount of time each day (or almost each day, recreation is important, too) to the work, even if you don't get much done every day.

Wouldn't have it any other way. There is a slight fear making itself snug inside of me, so the daily attack approach is definitely a must. Not an easy feat, though, especially with work in the evenings.

And good luck! I'll have to write mine in the near future, too. I'm still struggling with finding a good topic for it at the moment.

Do you already have any direction in which you want to take it? I'd definitely recommend finding a professor who will bounce back ideas with you. So far, mine left me to practically develop everything on my own; seeing how my fellow students get at least hints now and then only fuels doubts.

Zion Ravescene, you're having way too much fun with the carrot analogy. But then, I have to admit that you elephant carrot in the room made me lough out loud.

Oh don't worry, I'm much more like you. I write in bits and pieces and look for ways to connect them later. Then I'll end up writing a conclusion and realizing that it changes my paper, and I'll go back and delete huge parts and rewrite them. It's all very scattered and there's a lot of deleting and rewriting, and wouldn't make sense to anyone but myself. But it all comes together in the end.

Now that's what I longed to hear! (Okay, okay. I appreciate all the other comments as well.)
Definitely sounds like my style. There's this saying that only a genius controls chaos. Must be us.

I think I should mention by now that I am not really panicking. Of course, having to write such an amount of pages for the first time is a little worrisome (and let's all be honest: it just isn't a good night's sleep when you didn't grind your teeth a little); mainly, though, I was really just interested in how other's deal with larger texts.
But I do appreciate all the nice comments.

What I found that greatly improved my ability to do this was composing everything on a dictaphone.

Without ever having tried this, I can't imagine that it'd work for me. I need things written down in front of me, otherwise the skipping around of my thoughts would end in a disastrous result.

The intersubjectivity of the audience was clearly a buy more milk.

Funny story regarding unique writing styles: a few months ago I moved into a new department. One of the first clients I needed to see was a fresh assessment but she had previously been seen by that team some years previously so I pulled up the old notes and flicked through some of the old letters in order to quickly bring myself up to speed with the case. I was reading one of the letters and couldn't help thinking "what an excellent letter; all the information I need; very logical". It wasn't until I got to the bottom of the letter that I saw my own signature and I realised I had seen the client myself five years ago.

An equivalent of this happens to me all the time. You know, only in front of mirrors.

 

[Harvey]

Write one sentence, check the TrekBBS.

Write another sentence, check the TrekBBS again.

...

Realize my deadline is mere (hours/days/weeks) away, write everything in a hurry.

Turn in what I've written; check the TrekBBS.

No, I'm not an addict...

 

[Me-Ike]

^

I tried that one for today, only sometimes I didn't even write a sentence but only thought a thought (not necessarily topic related).

I'm going to throw out that approach. I hope.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

The only things I write these days are reports and letters. For these, one has the advantage of a generally accepted structure that can be held in the back of the mind, slotting in information and thoughts as needed.

What I found that greatly improved my ability to do this was composing everything on a dictaphone. At first, it took me a long time to dictate letters and reports, esp. multipage ones. I'd constantly be rewinding and re-recording. Nowadays, I can knock out a 4 page assessment report in about 10 minutes, dictating it rapidly with only occasional few word rewinds. I can do this because I'm very familiar with the format, know how to slot acquired information into that format, and most of all because I have a clear personal style in terms of how I write.

The discharge summary is a wonderful thing, with set formats so that you don't miss a thing. However, most of the summaries I do nowadays are for day cases, and it's easy to slip into bad habits. It should be noted that the first letters I have dictated in the past have been overlong but cover all the detail: much praise from my bosses, much frustration for the secretaries.

The dictaphone technique makes it convenient and fast for me, but the linear format is limiting if something of importance needs to be inserted.

Zion Ravescene, you're having way too much fun with the carrot analogy. But then, I have to admit that you elephant carrot in the room made me lough out loud.

What can I say - it's a carrot and stick approach: use enough carrots and eventually something will stick.

Continuing from Jadzia's top-down, bottom-up approach, I often find that once the two approaches (in terms of both carrots and onions) meet, it's at this point that things then become more dynamic between top-down and bottom-up: each then moulds the other so that they fit better, discarding old ideas and introducing new ones. Eventually, once the Elephant Carrot takes over the whole thing, it then dictates how the onions develop, leading to brand new onion layers forming beyond the original onion's sphere of influence, eventually forming new onions within the same top-down story and bottom-up Universe - in other words, new theatres of adventure are conjured up - but still following the grand plan as dictated by the elephant carrot in the room, which in a way is now encapsulated by an Elephant Onion (i.e. an expanded Universe) as a result of all this. If that makes sense.

 

[thestrangequark]

I definitely use the onion approach. I write chunks here and there as the inspiration comes to me and then cut and paste them in the correct order. Sometimes whole sections, sometimes paragraphs, sometimes a sing sentence or even a single word I really want to use.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

How do I approach writing?

I walk up to my desk, sit down, and start typing (or scribbling).

*pause*

What?

 

[Holdfast]

The only things I write these days are reports and letters. For these, one has the advantage of a generally accepted structure that can be held in the back of the mind, slotting in information and thoughts as needed.

What I found that greatly improved my ability to do this was composing everything on a dictaphone. At first, it took me a long time to dictate letters and reports, esp. multipage ones. I'd constantly be rewinding and re-recording. Nowadays, I can knock out a 4 page assessment report in about 10 minutes, dictating it rapidly with only occasional few word rewinds. I can do this because I'm very familiar with the format, know how to slot acquired information into that format, and most of all because I have a clear personal style in terms of how I write.

The discharge summary is a wonderful thing, with set formats so that you don't miss a thing. However, most of the summaries I do nowadays are for day cases, and it's easy to slip into bad habits. It should be noted that the first letters I have dictated in the past have been overlong but cover all the detail: much praise from my bosses, much frustration for the secretaries.

It's probably the opposite for me. I'm pretty concise generally. But when I do go long, it's because I have a Hacker-esque tendency to drift into sub-Churchillian purple prose when making assessments and recommendations. I discussed the relative merits of chocolate brownies vs chocolate cakes in a recent letter, for instance. Still, it keeps everyone amused, myself included.

Thankfully, discharge summaries are a thing of the past for me. They really were the most boring things to dictate and I'm glad I have someone else doing that sort of thing for me now. Generally, it's letters to GPs, tribunal reports, that sort of thing. Not exactly a thrill a minute either but at least there's some scope for individuality.

The dictaphone technique makes it convenient and fast for me, but the linear format is limiting if something of importance needs to be inserted.

There's never really anything important in a letter.

It's all patter and spiel to fill space and look thoughtful and convince the reader that you know what you're talking about until you get to the plan, which is when the GP wakes up and actually pays attention.

 

[DangerMouse]

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm with a pen.

I write all day every day - it's my job.

I don't really think about it - it's what I was born to do.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I will start by saying that I don't write stories, just papers and reports. I am also working on my Master's thesis.

I don't think I really have either approach. I spend a long time focusing on the sources, reading them all, highlighting, not writing anything but just taking it all in. And then at the end I write the paper all at once. For example with a paper that is due in a month, I will gather sources on the first three days, probably do nothing for a week, spend the next two weeks analyzing the sources, and then spend the day before it is due actually writing it. Some might see this as procrastination but that's not it at all. I am definitely no procrastinator, I have a strict timeline for things.

Obviously a 100 page paper can't be written all in one sitting, but I will take the same basic approach. Analyze the sources/work on the project I'm performing for several months, and then spend a really intense week or two actually writing it. When I write I get in "the zone." The words flow really easily and quickly because I have absorbed the sources as part of my subconscious.

Also, I know this is unusual and goes against anything I was ever taught, but I NEVER edit my work. In fact I don't even go back and read it, I only do a spell check. I write things the way I do the first time for a specific reason, and anything besides simple grammar mistakes should not be changed. I chose my words carefully and have no desire to change them, even if someone else thinks it can be better worded. It is worded the way that I want it to be, I am the writer and I believe that this is the best way to convey my thoughts to the reader. It sounds arrogant but I think that I write perfectly the first time around. And so far I haven't had much evidence to the contrary, I've always been praised for my writing skills and have even won scholarships and awards for it, so I must be doing something right.

Also, when I've finished investing all of that energy into something I want to be done with it, not spend days changing details or rewriting sections. I do it all at once and then that's it, it doesn't get another thought.

I don't know what kind of approach this would be called.

I should note that I don't take the same approach with writing stories or posts here on the BBS or emails or whatever. I don't have the same knack for writing in social situations that I do in writing historical essays.

 

[thestrangequark]

^Well, in regard to time management, I never wrote a paper sooner than a couple of days before it was due. I was the champion all-nighter, not just doing all the writing, but all the research the night before the papers were due as well, usually finishing only a few hours before my classes. And I always got the best grades on those papers, to boot!

 

[Me-Ike]

^ My brain shuts off past 8pm, I just can't do that. I can work all day, but never in my life have I really been able to pull an all-nighter.

The words flow really easily and quickly because I have absorbed the sources as part of my subconscious.

But how do you work out having to mention your sources? Do you note down where you found what and then just add that later?

 

[Count Zero]

Do you already have any direction in which you want to take it? I'd definitely recommend finding a professor who will bounce back ideas with you. So far, mine left me to practically develop everything on my own; seeing how my fellow students get at least hints now and then only fuels doubts.

I had trouble finding a good topic. My professor recommended one to me he'd like to read himself (that can be a good or a bad thing ) and I'm doing research and reading on it at the moment to determine whether I really want to do it. It's slower work than I'd have imagined. Oh well.
I think the professor in question is pretty supportive. At least that's what a friend of mine says who has just written her Magisterarbeit under him. He was also very nice and easy-going when I came to him with my problem. So yeah, I think he's the right man to supervise my work.

 

[Me-Ike]

I had trouble finding a good topic. My professor recommended one to me he'd like to read himself (that can be a good or a bad thing )

Expectations, man, expectations.

It's slower work than I'd have imagined. Oh well.

Tell me about it. I needed several weeks only to confirm my topic (finding literature, state of research, etc.). That and especially the actual registration for a Magisterarbeit are in itself worth a diploma, if you ask me.

Anyway, good luck with your Magisterarbeit!

 

[Spot's Meow]

But how do you work out having to mention your sources? Do you note down where you found what and then just add that later?

When I highlight my sources in the beginning I'm usually pretty selective, so before I start writing I already know what quote or point I'm going to want to incorporate. As I'm writing I just enter the little footnote number and a page number then at the end I actually format all of the footnotes and bibliography.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I use the "Onion Field" approach. I have fragments of unfinished projects all around my apartment. And in my head.

I wish I could use Asimov's approach: Just make sure my fingers are close enough to reach the keyboard.

 

[An Officer]

How do I approach writing? I try not to, generally.

 

[JustKate]

Weeelll, I'd offer a simpler thought.

Writing is writing. Good writing is editing.

Put the thoughts down in any order, any old how, as the creative whim takes toy. If you can't think of something to write comprehensively, put a 'placeholder' in, a brief sentence that describes whgat has to go there. Then gradually fill it up, replace the placeholdrs with the real deal.

Then comes the real part. Edit it. Be tough, be precise, be harsh with your work. Be really tough on it. As Clive James once said, turn each word around until it catches the light. Chop away at it until it sings.

This method works for me in the scripts I'm writing right now because I'm having all sorts of problems doing the creative writng thing, writers block if you will. I write what I can, fill in the blanks and close as many loopholes as I can, THEN edit it until it gleams. In some ways editing is the fun part of the process.

That's my advice, which works for me, and you are quite welcome to take it or leave it.

This is pretty much how I write...and this is the case even though I am not generally writing scripts or theses, but news and feature articles (with a few other things thrown in from time to time).

Sometimes I can just sit down, write the first sentence, and go from there. But with more complicated articles, I often end up writing in sections, and then using editing to get the sections to fit together. I generally have a rough outline in my head when I start this process - and for 90 or 100 pages, you'd better have a written outline - and while I sometimes end up altering this outline as the process goes on, it is still helpful in keeping me on track and in making it easier for me to remember what's important.

 

[Danoz]

For the last few months I have been working on my Magisterarbeit (roughly equivalent to a master thesis) and only in the last couple of weeks I actually got around to writing down first bits and pieces.

I will have to write between 90 and 100 pages and I noticed that I don't work, how shall I say, very orderly. What I mean is that I write a little here, a little there, and then I switch to a different aspect of the work altogether. A professor of mine once called this the onion approach (different layers which in the end make one onion) opposed to the carrot approach (when you start at the top and work your way through to the bottom).

I fear that this stupid onion approach will come back to haunt me the moment I'll be nearing the end of my work. It doesn't exactly scream 'good overview'.

What are you? Onion or carrot? Or do you have a quite different, radical method? How do you write your texts?

I'm pretty methodical in my own way:

• Research: Basically I do a literature review in the form of an annotated works cited page. Even if I end up not using a source, I still have it in the correct citation format well before I write anything (this is quite useful as I've never had to "go back and source" a paper-- this is already done).
• Outline: I brainstorm the body of the paper and come up with a basic outline.
• Writing: This is the last stage for me, but I typically will fill in the outline by starting with the body of the paper and working my way out. If I am providing historical context I like to write this first.