I am a perfectionist. In everything I attempt to do, I strive to produce the very best product of which I am capable. Unfortunately, this is one of the most destructive habits I have because it causes me to have irrational fears about starting projects and burn out by the project’s completion. What happens if I’m missing important points in research?What exactly are the expectations for this project? What if my work is not original enough? And here is the most terrifying question: What if it isn’t good enough and I disappoint both the readers and myself? Thus, with these fears haunting my every move, I stare blankly at an empty Word document for ridiculous amounts of time before diving straight back into research and heavy planning. So, with all of that out in the open, I will now go into the specifics of my writing process.
Q: What type(s) of writer do you consider yourself to be?
A: I tend to be a heavy planner according to the Student’s Guide. I think a paper to death before I start writing it. I develop an argument walking to class, eating, or laying in the grass staring at the clouds. Mostly, I think while waiting to fall asleep, armed with a notepad and the streetlights outside my window. Due to this practice, I tend to wait until the very last minute to actually write the paper which also marks me as a Procrastinator.
Q: Does your writing process include several of the above approaches?
A: Besides the heavy planning and procrastination tendencies, I employ some of the sequential composing techniques. As I write, I revise each paragraph and sentence heavily. This causes writing to be a long and tedious process, which, on top of procrastination, promises a long night and a long line of espressos the next day.
Q: Does your writing process seem to be successful? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your approach?
A: Surprisingly, my writing has always been successful. This is probably due to my heavy planning despite the procrastination. My procrastination is not ignoring the paper. It is painstakingly searching and searching for the perfect quotes and points of argument long past the amount required for the paper. A strength is that due to my through research, I also uncover counter-arguments and can address them in my paper. The weakness is that I exhaust myself so much planning the paper that I can feel my brain overheating at the thought of actually completing the paper.
Q: Do you think it might be beneficial for you to try a different approach? Why or why not?
A: Definitely. If I can manage to overcome my fears of starting papers and procrastinate less, then I will not burn myself out completely with each project. However, I go into each project with this mindset but have not been able to drastically change my writing process despite having gone to a writing intensive liberal arts high school. Hopefully, this class will force me to not procrastinate as many of the projects require sources external to myself, such as interviews and equipment rentals.
Q: If you could sum up your feelings about your writing process in one image, what would it be?
My feelings toward writing are aimed mostly at the heavy planning. My planning involves intense organization during which I create many documents filled with quotes color-coded by subject. Each of the quotes and pieces of information are like the wall of candies because there is an overabundance of tempting tidbits. I'm a kid in a candy store wishing to keep much more than I can afford or is beneficial to my health.
