(Re)finding Joy in the Writing Process

Remember when writing was fun? What ever happened to those creative writing assignments, to writing stories and poems on construction paper with crayons? 没有“错误”的方式来创造一个角色或愚蠢的场景——那时候，写作是纯粹的乐趣!

So when did the whole writing-for-school thing become such a drag?

对我来说，这种情况发生在中学后期，当时作业从创造性变成了批判性. 写作开始感觉更像是对我智力的测试，而不是充满乐趣的创造性练习, as a result, I worried more about passing or failing than I did about learning.

But somewhere along my journey through graduate school, I (re)learned that writing can be fun—yes, even academic writing. 我发现，小时候给我带来快乐的东西仍然适用于我成年后的写作.

Here are some strategies I’ve used to bring joy back into my writing process; maybe they’ll help you, too:

Embrace Discovery

童年写作如此有趣的部分原因在于发现的过程. As a child, I never “planned” what I was going to write; rather, I sat down and just let each sentence lead to the next, and I was naturally delighted when my stories took a funny turn, or when my main character did something unexpected.

我也学会了在学术写作中追求同样的快乐发现. 我曾经觉得我需要以一个伟大的主题想法或论文陈述开始我的写作过程. 但当我以一个有趣的问题开始时，我意识到我有更多的乐趣.

Like, maybe I’m supposed to write about themes in Homer’s Iliad比如，我被书中描写女性与男性的方式所震撼. Instead of trying to come up with a thesis statement right off the bat, I’ll just ask a question: “How does Homer portray women in the Iliad, and what might this say about the theme of fate versus free will?”

Once I have a question that I’m genuinely curious about, 我可以享受寻找答案的过程:我会搜索文本本身, look for library books and articles, ask classmates or my professor about their thoughts. I’ll write my discoveries in a notebook or Word document.

When I start with a question, 我不必担心马上写出一篇优美的文章——我只是陶醉在寻找问题答案的过程中，这激发了我的好奇心. 我经常发现，随着我学到的东西越来越多，我的问题也会发生变化——没关系，因为这也是乐趣的一部分! Eventually, 所有这些笔记和想法都成为了我真正想写的文章的基石.

Get Creative with the Process

当你还是个孩子的时候，你还记得画图画来配合你的话吗? 你还记得那些有创意的海报项目和立体模型吗?这些任务能让你调动大脑中最有创意的部分?

As an adult, 我发现在写作时玩弄视觉效果可以帮助我获得同样的创意空间. I like to make charts, lists, and/or diagrams about my paper topics. 有时，我甚至在研究的空白处画些小图画和涂鸦.

我知道其他作家会在写作的早期阶段进行创造性的头脑风暴练习. What might a poem about friendship or war from Helen of Troy look like? Or a page from her diary? 这些创造性的练习不一定有多好，关键是它们很有趣，可以为正在进行的论文释放新的想法.

It can also be fun to talk with classmates about a paper topic, call up a parent or friend from home, or make an appointment to talk with someone at the Writing Studio. 我发现和别人大声谈论我的研究问题或主题是充满活力的，让我兴奋地写下我们的想法和想法.

Change the Medium

Back-to-school shopping: the smell of fresh notebook paper, the feel of new, colored pens gliding across the page—remember that?

When I struggled with writer’s block in graduate school, 我暂时离开电脑，用手写在笔记本上写下了我的初稿. 我惊讶地发现，改变写作媒介对释放思维障碍有多么大的帮助, 写初稿的过程变得多么愉快. 当我手写时，我不太可能自我编辑，也不太可能怀疑自己的文字和想法. 我可以让每个句子引出下一个句子，而不用太担心听起来“聪明”.” Then, when I go to type the paper up on my laptop, I can do so much more quickly, and I can polish/tighten things up as I transcribe.

If you typically write first drafts on a computer, you might try writing long hand, too, or even speaking your ideas into a voice recorder. 如果你通常手写初稿，试着在电脑上写. Or, try using a different kind of paper or different colored pens. 有时候仅仅改变媒介就能让世界变得完全不同!

Use Your Voice

童年写作的另一个有趣的方面是我们可以自由地使用自己的声音. What I mean by that is we were often permitted, and even encouraged, to let our personalities come through our writing. At some point in our schooling, though, 我们被敦促在写作中采用更“学术”或“正式”的语气. By attempting to make our writing sound “smart,“我们可能已经习惯于在写作中扼杀任何个人的声音或个性.

However, as I made my way through a graduate degree in literature, 我发现，在大多数学术领域(尤其是人文学科)，最好的学术作品都是用强烈的个人声音写的. The overall tone of these scholarly pieces is formal, of course, 但作者的个性和独特的写作风格仍然表现出来.

尤其是在早期的起草阶段，我喜欢在写作中表达自己的声音. 我经常写作，就像我在向朋友解释一些事情一样:我使用对我来说很自然的语言, make jokes and asides here and there, etc. Then, as I revise my early drafts into more polished drafts, 我在不失去我个人声音的情况下，让我的句子更正式一些.

I also like to run my final drafts by a classmate, professor, 或者写作工作室的顾问，帮助我找到论文中“太不正式”的地方，并提供额外的修改建议. 通过在写作的早期阶段优先考虑我的想法和声音而不是形式, though, I have much more fun in the writing process, and my final drafts are ultimately stronger and much more interesting, too!

What are some of your writing memories? Which kinds of writing projects brought you joy, and which brought about anxiety, frustration, or confusion? 如果写作对你来说一直是一件苦差事，花点时间回顾一下你过去的写作经历. 承认这些负面情绪可能来自哪里，并考虑一些你可能(重新)在自己的写作练习中获得快乐的方法.

Happy writing!

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乔·萨莱斯卡·兰格于2012年毕业于康考迪亚大学欧文分校，随后在密苏里大学哥伦比亚分校获得文学硕士学位，并在密苏里大学圣分校获得小说硕士学位. Louis, where she won the Mary Troy Prize for fiction. For several years, 她曾担任康考迪亚大学欧文分校写作工作室的助理主任, 这是一个跨学科教授写作课程的角色, developing writing skills workshops, and curating writing resources for students and faculty. Now, she is a stay-at-home mom, freelance editor, and fiction writer. As a mother of two tiny humans, she doesn’t have a lot of spare time (IYKYK), but, when she does, she enjoys hiking and sipping cold drinks out on restaurant patios. You can find her at josaleska.com.