Students often come into the
Writing Center intent on “getting started,” focused on achieving clear objectives like writing an introduction or listing their thesis and topic sentences.
And we’re always happy to help with that – it’s what we do.
But something we could all benefit from – whether we’re writing or going about our daily lives – is wandering a bit more, taking time away from the careful pursuit of mapped goals.
It’s harvest-time in Connecticut and the Farmer’s Markets are colorful with winter squashes, fresh sweet peppers, the final bulgy tomatoes of the season. The leaves are falling but it’s not yet cold enough to hurry your steps. People get out this time of year – they pick apples and admire the scarecrows in each other’s yards. We take time to notice, to appreciate, to gather, to wander.
Similarly, in writing the shortest distance between two points is not always the most useful (or enjoyable!) distance to cross. Sometimes it’s better to wander a bit – start off on an unfamiliar path, use your inner sense of direction without consulting the “map” of structured outlines and forms, close your eyes and jump without knowing where you will land. If you’re willing to take chances like this, you allow your mind to work in ways that may be richer and more complicated – if not always as easy to recognize immediately. But wandering offers you a chance to notice, appreciate, and gather ideas so that you move through the territory of your writing in a more intimate and observant fashion than you might if you had proceeded in a linear, purposefully directed approach from the beginning.
There are lots of ways to do this. You might read the assignment and take a walk while you think about it. In the Writing Center we often suggest that writers choose a part of the reading they’re working with – a quote they like or maybe one that confuses them – and use this as a starting place, doing some writing that makes use of the quote in a way that speaks to a part of the assignment – speculating, stretching, turning language around in order to approach it from different angles. Another wandering start may involve simply having a conversation exploring different points of entry into the assignment, marking up the paper and taking note of key language, drawing arrows, grouping ideas, asking “how” and “why” often. Yet another path to take might involve drawing a map or chart as you walk through your thoughts, for example listing key characters/quotes/ideas from one reading across one axis and down the other listing characters/quotes/ideas from another reading, marking points of intersection with your observations about the suggestive possibilities of these combinations.
We don’t always find it easy to value time spent wandering. It can seem “unproductive” or “inefficient,” but time spent exploring early in your writing allows you to accumulate a richer, more complicated cornucopia of material to which you can return throughout your drafting and revision process.
Happy Harvesting!
~Wendy
Students often come into the 