Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Not sure what you want to say? Start writing about the topic, and you will probably learn what it is you want to say.

William Zinsser once wrote a book with the same title as this blog post. That book is better than this blog post, and the two have slightly different topics. Zinsser’s book was about the value of writing across the curriculum programs for colleges. Writing about a topic—explaining in print—is a good aid to learning that topic.

This post is about learning what you want to write when you start writing. The general topic is at hand, but you don’t quite know the specifics of what you want to convey. So…

Just start typing. If you have to, type

blah blah blah

I mean that. Literally type the word “blah” three or four or 33 times.

If you know one sentence that you want to write, type that one sentence first.

If you know some general outline like “beginning, middle, end” or “what, so what, now what” or even “paragraph 1, paragraph 2, summary,” type that general outline.

These somewhat meaningless words start the fingers moving and the brain rolling. The last part about the brain is of great importance. Once the brain clicks the rest flows.

We use word processors these days. It is pretty easy to go back and delete those first things. D O N ‘ T delete them while you are typing real words. That is merely a form of procrastination. Delete them after you’ve typed all the words you want to type.