A Reason For Writing

[poliphilo]

One of the reasons I write is to find out what I really think.

This afternoon for instance I wrote a longish screed about war poetry but didn't post it because something about it didn't feel quite right. I left it up on the computer and walked away and did something else- the crossword, I think- and when I came back to it and re-read it I could see that it was really very wrong. I tinkered about a bit and then wiped it because the wrongness was beyond tinkering.

If the form of a thing I've written is inelegant and badly proportioned- as this post was- I've come to realise it's almost because the thinking it embodies is inelegant and badly proportioned too. Not everything I'd written was bad- and maybe if I go away again and think some more I'll find my thoughts falling into a more elegant pattern. If they don't I'll know it's a subject on which I have nothing worthwhile to say.

Comments

[sovay]

One of the reasons I write is to find out what I really think.

That makes sense to me. I find writing about a subject and talking about it to be clarifying in different ways, but if I can't make it work in print, I have to leave it alone.

I would like to hear what you think about war poetry, though, so I hope it is a subject on which you turn out to have something to say.

[poliphilo]

I have opinions on the war poets, but when I wrote them down I wasn't so sure I was committed to them. We'll see how it goes.

[oakmouse]

*nods* Me too; I find that writing something out clarifies my mind and allows me to weigh and assess the various pros and cons, and any evidence available. I also find meditation on the topic helpful as a prequel to writing it out; among other things, that helps me to take a mental step back from any emotional loading the topic may have for me and to think about it from a more dispassionate angle.

[poliphilo]

I wouldn't want to distinguish between meditation and writing. For me it's a continuous, seamless process.

[oakmouse]

*nods* That makes total sense. I tend, at least these days, to meditate much more than I actually write, but for me it can definitely be a seamless process if I've got the pen in hand or the keyboard at my fingertips.