More Thoughts on Writing
My Theory of Expository Writing class has been taking up all the space in my brain for the last two weeks. The reading assignments are absolutely amazing, thought provoking, and inspiring. They’ve challenged everything I’ve believed about writing up to this point. Specifically, about how writing is a process and what that process is/looks like/how it manifests, and how writing is taught. Because while I do think that writing is a process, I also think that process is going to look different for every person. In the same way that standardized testing isn’t actually a representation of what someone knows or how much they love learning, “standardizing” the writing process to try and teach students to all write the same way is also not an accurate representation of writing skills.
Moreover, the idea of writing as a process implies a linear journey, moving from one step in that process to the next. When anyone who actually spends their time writing knows that it’s a recursive, circular process that changes not only between each person, but between each version of each person. The writing process I employ right now is not the same as the process I employed in my M.F.A. The process I use when writing prose is usually not the same as my process of writing poetry.
In class this week, some students put on presentations and we were encouraged to respond to at least one of them. The presentation I responded to focused on how writing, and especially moving through different genres of writing, can increase neuroplasticity; that writing literally creates new neural pathways in the brain, contributing not only to what we create, but who we are as people. How fucking awesome is that? Writing literally impacts who we are. We always hear about how reading is good for the brain and creates empathy, but we don’t often hear about writing doing the same.
There’s something about this that fills me with hope. I love writing and always have. It’s something that’s been part of me since I was a kid. I’ve always seen writing as a huge part of my identity, but I’ve never quite gone so far as to see it as the thing that’s made me who I am. And yet, now that I think about it, it seems silly to think that anything other than writing has shaped me into the person I am now. Obviously my experiences in life have shaped me, too, but writing is and has been what helps me process those experiences and learn from them.
I don’t know where I’m going with this. It’s all still mulling around in my mind. But I’m fascinated. I might have to write about all this in my essay this semester.
