As part of my job, I'm required to take technical policy guidance and craft it into something that is practical. My colleagues think that I just need to read it all and then start writing. What I find is that I need to let it all just circle around in my head, sometimes for weeks, before I can craft something that is real. These ideas need to come and then incubate with other things to create the space where I can then write something useful. None of my colleagues understand this and why it sometimes "takes too long."
And I find that type of writing is so hard. Makes sense that you’d need time for the ideas to surface. We’ve created a culture of rushing and urgency. I’m not much for either.
Love this. I could talk forever about the internal "hows" around writing. For me it's like a song I hear in my head that I have to capture in words. I feel like I can hear the rhythm that the sentence is supposed to have, given the prior one, and the next one. The words are just sort of there. It's a mysterious process and I am not sure that I am entirely in charge of it. 🙂 Because sometimes stuff comes out of me that I never knew was there. (Lol, that last sentence is a little too graphic! It's not always poetic but there it is! 😅).
Rebecca, I also love the mystery of writing. I feel like I never know where it’ll take me, but I’m always open for the ride, so to speak. Thanks for sharing!
As part of my job, I'm required to take technical policy guidance and craft it into something that is practical. My colleagues think that I just need to read it all and then start writing. What I find is that I need to let it all just circle around in my head, sometimes for weeks, before I can craft something that is real. These ideas need to come and then incubate with other things to create the space where I can then write something useful. None of my colleagues understand this and why it sometimes "takes too long."
And I find that type of writing is so hard. Makes sense that you’d need time for the ideas to surface. We’ve created a culture of rushing and urgency. I’m not much for either.
Love this. I could talk forever about the internal "hows" around writing. For me it's like a song I hear in my head that I have to capture in words. I feel like I can hear the rhythm that the sentence is supposed to have, given the prior one, and the next one. The words are just sort of there. It's a mysterious process and I am not sure that I am entirely in charge of it. 🙂 Because sometimes stuff comes out of me that I never knew was there. (Lol, that last sentence is a little too graphic! It's not always poetic but there it is! 😅).
Rebecca, I also love the mystery of writing. I feel like I never know where it’ll take me, but I’m always open for the ride, so to speak. Thanks for sharing!
I remember those 2001, 2002 teaching years :)
Yeah, you do!!