by Robert Waldvogel

Created on: March 04, 2011   Last Updated: March 07, 2011

Writing, if you begin with no other conception, is a creative process, like that of painting and sculpting.  Unlike other disciplines, however, it is not-and cannot-be the result of hard-and-fast rules, such as the “top ten steps to perfecting the written piece.”  Anything which arises out of such a pattern is not a creation at all: it is a re-creation.  And you, consequently, are not the master, but the student.

Depending upon genre, style, and purpose, writing instruction can provide tips and techniques, not molds, and grammar can equally facilitate its structure.  In certain cases, however, it can also provide obstruction—at which point, it leads to de-structive structure.  Content is king, but what you say may ultimately hinge upon how you say it.

My aviation, technical, and textbook writing, for example, has, by necessity, required the use of these confines, employing precise language and standard grammar.  My comedy writing, on the other hand, has given license to relaxed rules—sometimes to the point of discarding them altogether.  These stories are intended to be funny, and anything which hinders the laughter, hinders the creation of that laughter, whether it be in concrete form on paper or expressed verbally.  A creation should reflect what is in the author’s heart and soul—and not what is printed in his grammar books.

Writing is a “feeling,” an expression, and a “sixth sense,” if you will.  The more you “trap it” within rule-erected walls, the less will this “sixth sense” be able to escape.

And a writing idea, like a seed, sprouts as much from the soul as from the mind, before taking sometimes-amorphous form on paper as a first draft; cultivation will nurture it until it reaches maturity as a polished body and is ready, like a grown child, to be released, by means of the publishing process, into the world, where it can interact with others, exerting its effects.  These may be information, inspiration, or emotion.  Like the parental author that you are, you gave birth to it.

Although authors, vis-à-vis their writing media, can potentially exert unlimited influences on their readers, they actually—and, perhaps, paradoxically—only perform two fundamental functions: they either make the known different or the different known.  Because most subjects have been covered to the point of saturation, the former entails their presentation in a new, unique, and “different” perspective, while the latter involves the introduction, reportage, or explanation of something not generally known, such as the discovery of a new planet, in a straightforward, not overly artistic, manner.

But the path to expression perfection is both long and elusive, navigated by the pen: it is not a destination, but instead an evolution paved with practice, refinement, development, and growth, until you, as parent, have produced a satisfactory offspring.  The sculptor begins with a big boulder and ends up with a polished gem.  The writer may use different tools, but the process can take just as long.  When you control the words, as opposed to the words controlling you, you have arrived.

How often is heard the expression, “go with the flow.”  But, in order for this sentiment to be more author-applicable, a simple word should be inserted: go with your flow—no matter how slow, because the journey may prove to be just as enjoyable as the destination.  See you there!

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