Processes for WritingDrafting & Planning

What do writers do?PLANNING

DRAFTING

REVISING

EDITING

PUBLISHING

There is no such thing as THE Writing Process. Everyone has their OWN process and it varies from person-to-person, piece-of-writing to piece-of-writing.

Murray Cards

DONALD MURRAY

Planning“A writing plan is an artist’s sketch, a carpenter’s plan scratched on a board, a cook’s recipe that will be changed during cooking. A writing plan is not an order or a binding contract. It is an educated guess, a hunch, a suggestion: “Hey, let’s head for the beach.” When you write you may not get to the beach, you may stop along the way, decide to go to the mountains, run into some interesting people and spend time with them. Food may be eaten in a restaurant or the restaurant food taken out to the picnic area. But you would not achieve the surprise without the plan.”

DONALD MURRAY

When planning, writers must have...

a REASON to write

an INTEREST in the topic

a PURPOSE

an AUDIENCE

a GENRE

Planning

3 Significant Objects

Generating Ideas for Writing

What would be a compelling topic?

What themes run through your life?

What are stories you need/want to tell?

Finding a Significant Subject

Finding a Significant Subject

Life Battles/Strugg

les

Triumphs/AccomplishmentsHonoring a

Person who madea difference

Informational Text about an

Important topic

Commemorations/Remembrances

Reflections

PEOPLE• Living or Dead

• Why are they significant in your life?

• Small details to tell who these people are/were

• Find a theme about that person and write about them from that thematic viewpoint.

--Boys first year--Anticipating the birth of a baby

--Mother (died from cancer) --Father (gratitude for sacrifices) --Grandparents (remembrances)

PLACES• Why are they significant in your life?

• Write about the small details of the place.

• Find a theme about that place and write about it from that thematic viewpoint.

--Childhood trips--Honeymoons--Hometowns

--Home--Vacations

EVENTS• Why are they significant in your life?

• Write about the small details of the event.

• Find a theme about that event and write about it from that thematic viewpoint.

--Death of a friend--Significant move--Car accident--Birth of child--Special holidays

INFORMATIONAL PROJECTS

• What is something you know a lot about?

• Usually the writer has a personal connection to this topic that is woven into the writing

• Inform the audience about this topic--Effects of Smoking--Environmental Awareness--Sports--Infertility--Austism

Quick Write: Planning

Possible Personal Writing Topics

Purpose Audience

How I PlanWebs * Drawings * Lists * Outlines

Using the Daybook as a Place to PlanDrawings

Maps

Collecting bits of thought or information

Stuff you may use, or never use

Constantly refer back to these things as time goes on

Read daybook continuously to self or others

Planning Using Graphic OrganizersWhat are the pros and cons?

Drafting

“The only truly failed draft is a blank page.” DONALD MURRAY

DraftingKeep your hand moving

Lose control

Be specific

Don’t think

Don’t worry about punctuation, spelling, grammar (that will come during Editing)

You are free to write the worst junk in America

Go for the jugular

Don’t say, “I’m going to write well”; say, “I’m just going to write for half an hour.” Don Murray

OUTRACE the INNER CENSOR!!!!

Daybook ReflectionWhat did you notice about yourself as a writer when you drafted?

Processes for WritingRevision

Revision“Revision is re-seeing the entire draft so that the writer can deal with the large issues that must be resolved before the writer deals with line-by-line, word-by-word issues involved in editing. In reading for revision, it is important to step back and scan the draft so that you can see it as a whole, noticing such things as the relationship between the section of the draft that you cannot see when you are concentrating on the relationship between a particular verb and an individual noun.”

DONALD MURRAY

Revision

“Seeing what else is possible in a piece of writing.”

KATIE WOOD RAY

Judy Blume

Bruce Brooks

RevisionDo you revise your work much?

I think “revision” is badly named. The “re” prefix implies that you are going back over something you’ve already done. But you’re not going back. YOu are going on with the writing process. It’s all just part of getting it right. A friend of mine who played basketball once said that he envied me because he had just missed a foul shot that would have tied the score at the end of the game. He said, “But you can write that foul shot until you make it.” He was right. I write a first draft that I know is going to be partly good, partly bad. I may go over a manuscript three or four times before I’m satisfied.

BRUCE BROOKS

Lee Bennett Hopkins

RevisionDo you revise much?Sometimes a poem comes to me full-blown--right away. Other times, I work on one for months and months. Some poems remain unfinished for years.

What do you do when you get stuck and don’t know what to write next?I go to Saks Fifth Avenue, look at the price of Ultrasuede jackets, and tell myself, You’d better get back to it, guy, of you’re not going to be able to afford anything like that! I’m a professional. It I hit a problem, I work it out because I know I’ve got to.

LEE BENNETT HOPKINS

Writing WorkshopShow, Don’t Tell (Revision Lesson)

Objective: To learn a way to revise our writing.

How we will do this:--Read through our drafts

--Find a place where you Tell rather than Show.

--Revise our writing to be more specific.