The Benefits of Alternative Writing
I have been consistent with posting these essays for several months now, and I feel I am settling into it, become part of my weekly workflow. While not exactly on a specific cadence, I’m posting often enough to almost hit the once a week mark. While I am finding it can be difficult and stressful at times, that goal of an article a week is what pushes me to write daily, whether I feel like it or not.
Part of this comes out of my goal to write everyday (thanks Jerry!). While a lot of the time I’m eager to write, it’s not always easy- be it schedule, motivation, ideas, Twitter- so I need a reason to write. My main writing focus for years has been screenwriting and it still is, but recently have felt the need to branch out. I have an endless stream of ideas that need an outlet and decided to explore.
Writing a weekly essay was one venue that I chose to stretch my writing muscles. It’s been challenging and enlighting at the same time, learning the need to write more concisely and quickly. I noticed a tendency, at times, to write verbose and long winded entries. So I’m constantly pushing myself to convey my thoughts more precisely and simply, getting to the heart of my points, while also working at a fast pace to deliver on schedule.
Not yet perfected, but continually getting better.
I have also been explore other types of writing as well. Another important, new, aspect of my writing is a Life Journal. This is a notebook that I use dedicated to writing about ideas and beliefs I think I live by, but have not actively explored in a meaningful way. I think about areas of life, informing myself by reading, researching, and educating in any way possible, gaining a grasp of topics and a vague understanding of where I fall on a given subject. But I want to re-examine and articulate what and why I actually believe on a wide range of issues, from the playful and creative, like design, to the serious and practical, like privacy. I want to lay out what I think I know, find gaps in my logic, find and resolve conflicting points, or prove that I have a solid grasp on a topic and my take on it.
I am also giving dediated time to writing jokes. Comedy, specifically standup comedy, is an area I have always been curious about, feeling that I have the ability to craft something unique. For a long while been collecting jokes as the randomly come to me, and finally have begun to revisit them, find threads of connection between them, and create the outlines of a routine. From there I will work on fleshing them out and attempt to fill in the holes in a concerted way. It’s a totally differeent way of writing, constructing a narrative more piece meal, but engaging me in a unique way with it’s unique framing.
After that I just need to find an alternative way to discovering confidence to deliver jokes to a crowd in public. Is sit-down comedy a thing?
Bad jokes aside, these examples of different types of writing have given me a multitude of benefits for my main focus of screenwriting.
Most importantly, I am consistently flexing my creative muscle, and more specifically, my writing muscle. Setting time each day for focused and energy, either with a notebook or at the computer, I am training myself to be able to sit still, give undivided attention, and produce words.
The need to pare down my work that I post here helps my brain to rewire how it writes and processes information in a foundational way, even though how I write for each forum is different in the prose expressed. I am constantly pushing to edit and reconfigure my words to express my ideas better by explaining less to have the reader to imbue and imagine more.
Other benefits are codifying my thoughts, ideas, and beliefs. Ideas in the mind are tricky devils, who morph, blend, and disappear in an instant. Putting them down, be it ink or digitally, makes them real and reveals them for who they are. Some seem big, grand and fleshed out, only to reveal themselves to be a bullet point without a solid foundation. Others seem like nuggets, but once they are out of the mind proliferate, creating pages and pages of words.
Additionally it helps to play with these ideas. Ideas are inherently fluid and there are many ways for them to be interpreted and expressed. This adds a levity and playfulness to what can be a tedious and frustrating endeavor, while also helping to understand different points of view on a topic.
And you never know until you actualize them.
And that is the most important aspect of writing in multiple mediums. Because while one set of prose may be the passion and outlet to most express your ideas, working with different framing can help express thoughts and ideas differently and make you main writing stronger.
I am finding that just getting them out of my head allows me to evaluate them, understand them, and then better incorporate them into my stories.
When I am at a loss on what to write about, need a change of pace, or a spark on an idea, I’ll just free write. Pick an idea in my head and just write about it. Sometimes it’s short and shallow, finished, and never revisited. Other times, I continue writing about the topic for nights. And they don’t ultimately have to lead any where. There are times it is just a mishmash stream of consciousness that has no grounding principle, but that’s okay.
It helps me recognizes that either those thoughts don’t have as much substance to them or maybe I need to find a better way to articulate of my thoughts and feelings if it’s something I care about. Which I am realizing is a powerful tool in life that helps you understand how you want to represent yourself and ideas, and others to have a fuller and clearer understanding of you as well.
Because that is what writing, and any art for that matter, is about. Expressing your honed, unique viewpoint that can help enlighten and connect people together. Count me in for anyway to strengthen that ability.
