The Way I Write

I have always enjoyed writing. It doesn't matter the reason--be it academic, personal, or otherwise. All of my life I have followed the same procedure whenever I have sat down to write something, and I'm not sure if anyone else does this. I asked my friend Bob about it today, because he does quite a bit of writing. His response to my method, "That's kind of weird, Kevin."

It's important to note that I don't ALWAYS do this, but I do most of the time.

1. I never have anything written down when I sit at the computer. This has proven to bite me in the butt on several occasions when I have lost my work to a bad computer hard drive, etc.

2. Even though I don't have anything written down, I always have a clear idea of what I want to accomplish in my work. So it's not like I go in "blind." I know what I want to say, and I usually have a good idea about how I want to say it.

--This next step is the strange step, according to my friend.

3. I will start a paragraph and do quite a bit of work on it, and then I will, most likely, start another paragraph or two before I finish the first one.

My head is usually full of lots of ideas, phrases, or sentences, and I feel that I must get my ideas down before I forget them. So, in any given paper/blog posting, etc., I may have eight or nine partially completed paragraphs.

4. Then I will go back and complete all of my paragraphs and thoughts. It's at this time that I will add the transitions between paragraphs, and I will do my best to make the whole thing flow. I don't want the reader to know that my work was, at one time, a partially-completed mess.

5. I will read and reread the entire piece, before I am finished with it. I used to be a great speller. In fact, I finished in the Top 5 in St. Louis, back when I was in 7th grade. So I hate to have a submission with a spelling mistake.

6. If everything seems to be ok, I will submit my piece.

So what I do happens to work for me, but it probably wouldn't work for many people.

I have surmised that I must have some form of adult a.d.d, because I can be kind of scatterbrained, and I can go from one hobby or activity to the next.

BTW, after I write this last line, do you know what I'm going to do? It's time for steps five and six. :)