Thought Process I Use While Writing

 

I was encouraged to write about the thought process I use while writing.

How should I begin?

I don’t actually have a structure in mind when I start writing. I pour out my unprocessed thoughts and put down whatever comes to me. As long as I start writing.

The most important thing for me when writing is to jot down everything I want to say in words that are as raw and original as possible. I won’t let any structural or invisible rules interfere with my cascading thoughts and ideas. That’s what keeps me writing and it enables me to write liberally. It helps me to focus more on speaking my mind than using rhetoric or sophisticated words to impress readers.

Because of that, I don’t get writer’s block often. If I do, I don’t do anything special to start writing again. All I do is keep writing.

I just write down whatever I think of. Easy. I might read like a lunatic.

But guess what?

I’m free to make as many mistakes as I want and I always get a chance for revision.

I can go over the same writing a hundred times and make it a little better each time. That is a hundred times better than the first draft.

What’s interesting though, is that I hardly ever change the overall structure of my article once I’ve written it. Even though my mind seems to jump all over the place when I write, the outcome always surprises me in a way like “oh wow, that actually came together really well, huh?”

Writing for me is like magic. I never have a clear vision of where I end up might be. I usually don’t know what I am going to write. Why would I spoil the mystery of writing by setting myself a thought-out plan to stick to? I like letting writing take me to places I’ve never even thought of going. I like when it leads me deep down into that mystic inner space.

Knowing that I might change a person’s perspective on life forever, or deliver messages that people have never known of makes me contented and keeps me motivated.

I never thought I would enjoy writing so much until I started writing in English. It feels good when I know I used a phrase or expression on point. It feels good to write without a concern, using English as my “secret code” as an angry teenager in China.

I didn’t like writing so much when I was in school. I always copied texts from books when I had writing homework in elementary school. One time I left the entire writing section completely blank on my examination paper. I didn’t know what to say, what to write. I wasn’t allowed to write what I want to write and there was almost always a fixed title or topic you could write about. It’s “bad writing” if you drift a little far from the topic. I either write truths or I write nothing.

I find these confinements limiting. Writing is not about rules, there are no rules. Now that might sound contradictory to you as I’m following some rules while writing this. But these rules are only supposed to make my writing more readable and understandable, and not to set limit to what I could write and confine me from writing what I want.

I’d like to think writing is all about expressing. About freedom, education, and the truth.

As a reader, I also want to read candidness.

We are extra cautious when we write, we want to sound sophisticated and polite, we want to be well-presented and perfect, we really don’t want to offend people.

Here’s the truth. We can’t be candid and not make some people offended or uncomfortable. Being straightforward is going to hurt, sometimes similar to taking pills when you’re sick. It’s bitter but you need them. It hurts, but you get the truth in return. Sugarcoated words are like a cheating boyfriend keeps calling you sweetie. You learn the truth the hard way.

A voice not loud enough won’t hurt but is hardly heard.

Write boldly, and unforgivably, the truth.