Revisiting My Writing Process

As we near the end of the semester, it’s exciting to look back at everything that I’ve accomplished.  But more than just reviewing the 59 blog posts and 3 major projects, it’s also intriguing to see how I have grown as a writer.  Both in my writing process and in my time management, I find things that I improved on and others that I refused to change.

Webster, Tony.  "Idea Board" 01/23/2010 via Wikimedia.
Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

I began the year by classifying myself as a “procrastinator” but that “my reasons for working under pressure stem from my quality as a ‘heavy planner.’  Although, nothing ends up on paper, I make bullet points, maps, and outlines in my head and envision my paper all in intangible thoughts” (Blog Post 1.10).  This course, in a figurative sense, forced me to put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) weeks before the project was due.

My inevitable procrastination did not stop me from waiting until Friday night to begin that week’s deadline; however, this did not stop me from putting many hours of work into the blog posts, or essentially the planning process.  And this style worked, as my blog posts didn’t have writing masterpieces, just tangible thoughts.

This process even eliminated the need for being a heavy reviser. Even when Sean asked us to throw a piece of writing away and start over, I didn’t feel the need because I had put so much thought into the planning process that my rough drafts came out more like finals draft that had been reviewed and refined.  I did not use my new intro paragraph from Blog Post 8.5.

This new process will definitely continue and improve throughout my college career.  I might not have the weekly deadlines in the future to keep me accountable for this, but I will find a way to work on assignments weekly.  Not only did this style significantly better my writing, but I always felt in control throughout the process.  I never felt as though the project was too overwhelming to get done or that the time is too short that I would just throw something together.

I’ve proved to myself that there is a better way than procrastinating till the last minute and doing all my planning in my head.  In the future, I will not have as many papers but more presentations.  I am good at winging speeches, but I’ve seen how much planning out from day 1 can really enhance my project.