My Writing Process

Brain POP, "The Writing Process", 05/17/2010 via flickr, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDervis-2.0Generic

1. What type of writer do you consider yourself to be?
I would like to say that I am just a 'Heavy Planner', but if I'm being completely honest I am a mix between a 'Heavy Planner' and a "Procrastinator'. I'm not as extreme of a procrastinator as is described in the Student's Guide to Writing, because I will start my planning and outlining process well before a paper is due, but I tend to put off the actual writing until a couple days before. In my defense, I make very detailed outlines! This habit doesn't apply to 100% of my writing, I'll actually spend a lot of time on something if I am passionate about it or loved learning about it.

2. Does your writing process include several of the above approaches? Which ones?
I definitely approach writing as a heavy planner, but that can turn into 'procrastinator' pretty quick if I have little interest in what I'm writing. I could never stand writing literary analyses in high school, or my first couple years of college, though I did get really good at it. The essays I enjoyed writing the most were always controversial, or strongly opinionated. I would always heavily plan those.

3. Does your writing process seem to be successful? Strengths and weaknesses?
I feel like my writing process really works for me. My high school had a rigorous curriculum, so I became very good at writing a 2-3 page essay in an hour or so with no outline, but now that I have the opportunity to write about interesting things that I actually care about, I've adopted the more serious 'Heavy Planner' approach with my outlines and entire process. My outlines are definitely my biggest strengths, but my biggest weakness is writing too much (when I'm passionate about it). I'll make an outline for an essay that is supposed to be 5 pages, but that will be the length of my outline. I think I just try to cover all my bases a little too much that it turns into rambling.

4. Do you think it would be beneficial to try a new approach? Why or why not?
Maybe, but I'm probably not going to. I rarely edit my own papers, at least not the first draft, because my changes tend to be the things that get marked off. When I am actually writing the papers, using my outline, I imagine it as though I'm giving a speech almost. Most of my thoughts flow into the word document in a meaningful order and I tend to let them stay that way.