My Writing Process- the chaos that is

    I cannot say that I practice the best writing habits.  In fact, I can be a bit terrible about it.  I tend to write in a way that puts me under to much stress and pushes deadlines.  Writing can be a freeing and satisfying act, but much of the time, for a variety of reasons, it is an unpleasant and draining task.

Miguel Angel "What have I done!?" August 17, 2006 via flickr 

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    I prefer to think of myself as the Heavy Reviser writer, the kind of writer who goes over and rewrites their work until it bears little resemblance to whatever first draft they started with.  In my experience revision can transform a work into an entirely different, and better, piece.  I struggle with the obvious problems with this style, especially the need to delete a good, but superfluous paragraph.

    But, really I'm a procrastinator.  My ability to start projects is questionable.  A blank page is an intimidating thing.  Procrastination has cause me enough trouble in the past that I've tried to expunge it several times.  Still, I often find myself turning in a piece before I feel that I'm truly done with it. Then again I'd never stop tweaking my work otherwise.

    My writing process is maddening, draining, and distressingly effective.  The largest flaw in my writing is my procrastination.  Though, that largely stems from my overuse of revision.  When writing my projects often end up taking up as much time as I allow them to.  My writing process is draining, but it's how I work.

    Trying to change my approach to writing would be the obvious solution, but it hasn't worked.  My attempts to more heavily plan my work have had the same results with lower quality final products.  I'll likely learn how to write more like a sensible person eventually, but until then I'll keep trying to fake it.