Have you ever sat down to write but struggled to get the words onto the page?
You’re not alone.
It’s not always easy to express yourself. Words don’t come out right, or they don’t come out at all.
Sometimes it’s so frustrating you abandon your writing project.
But, fortunately, there is a simple writing strategy available to us.
And it starts with splitting the writing process into two distinct stages:
- Creating
- Criticising
Let’s dig in.
A two-step writing process
If you’re like me, your inner critic is loud and highly opinionated when you write.
So, before we even start building any kind of momentum, we worry about getting the right words for what we’re trying to say.
One way to fix this problem is to divide the writing process into two, Peter Elbow, an Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
In Writing With Power, Elbow explains:
“Writing calls on two skills that are so different that they usually conflict with each other: creating and criticizing. In other words, writing calls on the ability to create words and ideas out of yourself, but it also calls on the ability to criticize them in order to decide which ones to use.”
Now, of course, we can do these two things at the same time.
And, often, that’s exactly how we end up writing: editing our thoughts and words as we write.
“Most of the time it helps to separate the creating and criticizing processes so they don’t interfere with each other: first write freely and uncritically so that you can generate as many words and ideas as possible without worrying whether they are good; then turn around and adopt a critical frame of mind and thoroughly revise what you have written—taking what’s good and discarding what isn’t and shaping what’s left into something strong.”
Elbow said these two processes are both important but are only effective when they’re separated.
“If you separate the writing process into two stages, you can exploit these opposing muscles one at a time: first be loose and accepting as you do fast early writing; then be critically toughminded as you revise what you have produced.”
So, what does this two-step writing process look like in action?
Below, I outline how I use Eblow’s advice in my writing:
- Freewriting
- Revising
Hopefully, you’ll find some tips that work for you, too.
Freewriting
One of the best writing practices is freewriting.
Elbow, who is a pioneer of freewriting, explains it like this:
“Freewriting is the easiest way to get words on paper and the best all-around practice in writing that I know. To do a freewriting exercise, simply force yourself to write without stopping for ten minutes.”
And as I wrote in this blog post on Medium, Elbow mentions that when we speak, we speak freely. But when we write, we stop and start and wonder whether we are saying the right words.
Freewriting removes all of this friction.
“Freewriting makes writing easier by helping you with the root psychological or existential difficulty in writing: finding words in your head and putting them down on a blank piece of paper.”
Now only that but freewriting improves your creativity:
“… if you just let words and ideas come out without checking them first, some may indeed be stupid. But when you know that this is just the first of two stages, and that you are getting more and more critical in the second stage, you feel safer writing freely, tapping intuition, and going out on limbs. You will be more creative.”
Freewriting helps when you need to:
- Brainstorm ideas
- Develop your thoughts around a topic
But, really, it’s a good idea for any kind of writing.
I’ve used freewriting for longer-form blog posts and short snippets for social media.
When I use freewriting, I find that the end result of my post is different from what I set out to do.
And this isn’t a bad thing.
There is research that the act of writing helps us to develop new thoughts.
When we stop self-editing so early on the process, we leave room for more ideas. All of these won’t be good, but some will be, and we’d never have discovered them if restricted ourselves at the very start.
If the idea of writing non-stop for ten minutes is intimidating, try with two minutes or five minutes. This is a good way to build a daily writing habit, too.
Revising
In the second stage of writing, we interrogate our ideas.
“You can consciously and critically build your essay today out of insights you could only arrive at by relinquishing critical thinking last night.”
Now, there are many different ways you can revise your work. The best approach is the one that works for you. Writing and writing productivity is subjective.
For example, some people love to listen to music while they write, while others need absolute silence as they work.
Experiment with a few methods to find one that makes sense for your unique style.
In this article on Enchanted Marketing, Henneke XXX talks about a 5-step revision process for improving your writing:
- Find your focus: what’s essence of your message
- Create content flow: do your thoughts flow logically
- Add substance: examples, case studies, and specific details about the calims you’re making
- Sentence by sentence editing: things like finding the right words and making sure your sentences are short
- Proofreading: includes fixing grammar mistakes
A great way to revise your work is to read it aloud, said Elbow.
“If we read out loud each sentence we’ve written and keep revising or fiddling with it till it sounds right–till every part fits comfortably in the mouth and sounds right in the ear–the meaning will be clear and often forceful.”
This is especially important for conversational writing. In this handout, Elbow gives practical tips for how to improve your writing by reading aloud.
Check out this article if you’re looking for more writing process tips.
