Free writing simply means getting ideas on paper as fast as you can. The trick is to let feelings and ideas pour forth. Jot down anything that occurs to you, without worrying about order or even making much sense. Keep going; to pause is to risk getting stuck, like a car in snow. Move the pencil, writing whatever pops into mind. Don't be afraid of making mistakes or of saying something foolish. You probably will. So what?
You're writing for yourself, and if you won't risk saying something foolish, you're not likely to say anything wise.
Here's how you might explore the different attitudes of the 1990s and the 1960s on sex, love, and marriage:
Sex—less permissive today. Herpes? AIDS? More conservative mo- rality? Just a generational reaction, a swing of the pendulum?
l6 . THE WRITING PROCESS Cooler about love and marriage. Less romantic. Harry and Ellen.
Maybe feminism. If they have a chance at careers—prestige, money—women are harder-headed about marriage. Maybe more demanding about men, less willing to accept them on men's own terms. Maybe men leery of modem women.
Economics? It's a tougher world. Fewer good jobs, more com- petition. Everything costs—education, cars, housing, kids.
Materialism. Young people seem more materialistic. Concerned with money, worldly success. They want to make it. Be millionaires by thirty. Admiration for winners, fear being losers.
Less idealistic? Do disillusion and cynicism push toward self- interest? But people in their twenties today aren't really cynical and disillusioned. Never been idealistic enough. They don't have to learn the lesson of The Big Chili They grew up in it.
Such jottings are not finely reasoned judgments. Many of the ideas are speculative and hastily generalized; some are probably biased. Still, topics have surfaced. The next task would be to look at them closely, rejecting some, choosing others; and then to gather information.
Thus both methods of exploration have led to topics, the rudiments of an essay. But notice that while they cover the same general subject, they have led in rather different direc- tions. The analytical questions have stressed what—the na- ture of the changes in attitude; the free writing has stressed why—the reasons for the changes.
These different emphases were not planned. They just hap- pened. And that suggests an important fact: it is profitable to use both methods to explore for topics. Questions have the advantage of focusing your attention. But a focused attention sees only what is under the lens, and that is a severe limitation.
Brainstorming can be wasteful, leading in too many direc- tions. But it is more likely to extend a subject in unforeseen ways and to make unexpected connections.
The two methods, then, are complementary, not antithet- ical. Temperamentally, you may prefer one or the other. But it's wise to try both.
EXPLORING FOR TOPICS 27
For Practice
D> Below is a series of provocative quotations. Select one that appeals to you and explore it for topics. You don't have to agree with the idea. The goal is just to get your thoughts on paper.
First, fill one or two pages with free writing. Put down everything that comes to mind. Then try the more analytical approach of ask- ing questions. (A variation of this exercise is to work with several friends; group brainstorming can be more productive than working alone.)
Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes. Thoreau Know thyself. Greek maxim
"Know thyself?" If I knew myself I'd run away. Goethe The business of America is business. Calvin Coolidge
Business underlies everything in our national life, including our spiritual life. Woodrow Wilson In love always one person gives and the other takes.
French proverb
Sex is something I really don't understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away. j . D. Salinger No man but a blockhead ever writes, except for money.
Samuel Johnson
He's really awfully fond of colored people. Well, he says himself, he wouldn't have white servants. Dorothy Parker If we wanted to be happy it w o u l d be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, which is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are. Montesquieu Wrest once the law to your authority:
To do a great right, do a little wrong. Shakespeare A lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of the cause which he undertakes, unless his client asks his opinion, and then
28 THE WRITING PROCESS he is b o u n d to give it honestly. T h e justice or injustice of t h e cause is t o be decided by the j u d g e . Samuel Johnson [College is] four years under the ethercone breathe deep gently n o w that's the w a y to be a g o o d b o y o n e t w o three four five six get A's in some courses but d o n ' t be a g r i n d . John Dos Passos If a t h i n g is w o r t h d o i n g , it is w o r t h d o i n g badly. c. K. Chesterton
CHAPTER
6
Making a Plan
You've chosen a subject (or had one chosen for you), explored it, thought about the topics you discovered, gathered infor- mation about them. Now what? Are you ready to begin writing?
Well, yes. But first you need a plan. Perhaps nothing more than a loose sense of purpose, held in your mind and never written down—what jazz musicians call a head arrangement.
Head arrangements can work very well—if you have the right kind of head and if you're thoroughly familiar with the subject.
But sometimes all of us (and most times most of us) require a more tangible plan. One kind is a statement of purpose;
another is a preliminary, scratch outline.