Vol. 75, No. 7, July 2002

Deciding What Matters Letting Go

by Mary Barnard Ray

While watching my eldest son drive for the first time, I began thinking about how people learn to write. (Only a writing teacher would do this, I know.) What struck me was where my son focused his attention, which was just in front of the car. With more experience and with expert guidance from his mother, of course, my son began learning where to focus his attention in different situations. He learned to watch the periphery for bikes, bouncing balls, and deer. He learned to watch the road farther ahead and to brake soon enough to stop in time. He learned how to judge dangerous situations in the traffic around him. In short, he learned to watch the things that matter most and tune out things that matter less. Similarly, writers need to focus on things that matter most and let go of less important concerns.

Like breathing, which requires both acquiring and expelling air, writing requires both acquiring and expelling. The writer must acquire content, grammar, and style rules that affect the quality of the document. But throughout the writing process, the writer must also set aside content that is unneeded, at least temporarily set aside grammar details that distract from the task at hand, and set aside style concerns that do not matter much in the particular document being written.

The Purpose of the Document

In general, what matters most varies with the nature of the document being written. For example, in letters the writer should focus on the tone of the letter, one that builds the working relationship you need with your reader. In research memos, what matters most is accurate reasoning, readability, and conciseness, which creates a document that is a reliable and efficient resource for your reader. In appellate briefs, what matters most is focusing on relevant arguments, logical organization, and cogent phrasing. These factors are useful and persuasive for the reader.

For the best results, the purpose of the document should govern all important decisions. In general, concerns related to substance should be resolved before concerns related to form. Thus purpose should be addressed before content, and content before form. For example, the drafter of a complaint should consider the relief desired and the theory supporting that belief before choosing facts to allege. The drafter of a contract should consider the client's goals before choosing the technical clauses to include.

The Stages of Writing

What matters also varies with different stages in the writing process. Writing involves more factors than the mind can attend to at once. These factors include which content to include or exclude; wording for accuracy, tone, and conciseness; and details of punctuation, grammar, spelling, length, and format. If a writer worries about all these aspects of writing at one time, the writer is much more likely to experience stress and writer's block.

To avoid this overload, the writer usually needs to forget presentation details, such as concise phrasing in the prewriting stages of a large document. Instead, the writer should focus on substantive concerns, such as including all the needed content. When writing a first draft of a difficult project, the writer should focus on getting the draft done, and save the task of getting all the details right for later revisions. This helps the writer avoid writer's block, which most often happens when the writer feels overwhelmed by the task.

After the first draft is written, the writer usually needs to focus on organization by moving, adding, or deleting pieces of supporting text until the document comes together logically. Only then is it worth the writer's time to focus on smaller-scale concerns such as transitions, paragraph length, and tone. These tasks are best focused on during revision. Finally, during the final polishing of a document, the writer should resist the urge to question overall organization and other issues addressed earlier. Revision based on a second guess is usually not worth the effort unless a clear error has been discovered.

Thus, at each stage of writing, the writer needs to let go of some concerns even as he or she focuses on others. In turn, all the concerns can be addressed effectively. When the writer tries to juggle all writing concerns at once, however, the quality of the final document usually becomes inconsistent, and the writer usually becomes unnecessarily stressed.

The Writer's Temperament

Finally, what matters most in writing depends on the temperament of the writer. This is particularly true regarding the writer's management of creativity and criticism in writing. For writing, again like breathing, involves these two contradictory actions that must be coordinated into a larger, fluid process. Both creativity and criticism are needed.

Creativity in writing is needed to enable the writer to see possibilities. Without the contemplation of more than one option, the writer has no choice. In word choice, creativity involves a scan of the writer's mental thesaurus. In sentence structure, it involves imagining a sentence with a particular phrase placed first here, then there. In organization, it involves considering more than one sequence of ideas. In composition, it involves considering more than one possible supporting case, legal theory, or other recognized sources of authority. Creativity feels good; words come easily from the pen.

Criticism, which involves ruling out possibilities, also is necessary. It is the action of focusing on what is wrong with various possibilities. By its nature, criticism does not encourage exploration of new options, and it cannot replace the need for creativity. It feels dutiful and controlled. But creativity without the editing force of criticism creates a long, difficult, and ultimately boring text for the reader. Writing that comes with ease is usually read with difficulty.

Each writer needs both skills, but both cannot happen at the same time. Each writer needs to find a rhythm between these contradictory actions. Some will alternate rather quickly, returning to a paragraph to edit it soon after writing the first draft. Others will develop a longer interval, writing a complete draft before returning to edit it.

Although the optimal rhythm varies greatly from one writer to another, rapid alternation between creativity and criticism is often problematic. The writer who writes and rewrites the first sentence over and over is alternating quickly between the two. For some writers, this works; however, for most it doesn't. Bringing the critic into the creative process too often is exhausting and creates a panicky feeling, like panting. Generally, writing more before editing is more efficient.

For some writers, creativity is the part of the process most often overlooked. Writing often results in boredom and a sense of being in a rut. A writer who never takes a more expansive view of writing becomes a writer of limited capability. He or she will often overlook possible arguments and is unlikely to succeed when faced with an unusual situation that calls for a new approach.

The antidote for this is to turn off the criticism for a while. Trust that later you will catch all the errors. Focus instead on the content itself and write out all the bits and pieces you understand about that content. This expansive stretch of creativity allows a writer to explore possible phrases and produce text more quickly. Then, when you have written all you know, return to the text with all your critical facilities. You can delete all the overdone imagery, the logical dead ends, and the impassioned but irrelevant pleas. But in that process, you often will discover some gems that would not have occurred to you had you not given your creative processes that extra time.

For other writers, the critical part of the process is neglected. Taking a bigger creative breath is problematic when the writer forgets to exhale. Sometimes a writer, after letting the words flow with abandon until a section or idea is completed, sees the text as complete. Either the writer cannot bear the thought of doing all the editing needed or he or she cannot imagine any other way to word the ideas. This is an illusion. One-draft beauties are extremely rare; a writer is more likely to win the lottery.

The writer must exhale some of the excesses in every text. For example, he or she must remove redundant supporting information, wasteful words, and irrelevant lines of reasoning. Inspiration often provides quantity, but it cannot be depended on for quality.

Whenever you feel inspiration seize you, when you find the words flowing from your fingers, enjoy it. But remember, inspiration is prolific. After the feeling subsides, re-read the text with a critical eye. Edit without mercy, exhaling failed phrases and ideas. Do not leave this task to your reader.

Conclusion

Writing with ease and effectiveness involves understanding the priorities for the document you are writing, the goals of each stage in the writing process, and your own optimal rhythm between creativity and criticism.

Wisconsin Lawyer