Jennessa Lever 5/9/11 First Drafts

Paul Simon
Paul Simon describes his revising technique as simply pushing forward. He also talks about being patient and erasing things you don’t like. This is good advice. If you don’t like it, how can you expect someone else to like it, and think that it was a good idea? He is speaking in relation to songwriting, however his methods can be applied anywhere. He says sometimes things just click into place. This is very true. When writing I often have a hard time coming up with the word I want to use. However, with a few minutes of staring at the screen or into the dark abyss that is where my desk is located, it is possible to find the right words for the page.

J Mays
Through this article it becomes clear that writing is a lot like building a car. First, you have to know what you are looking for. Then you need to know what will go inside of it, and then you start drafting, creating a physical product. It is only after you have reached a certain point that you then finalize the project into a hard material, and begin to create the actual model. It is through the creation of a model, or for our purposes, a paper, that you reach the final product. Also, it will be many clay drafts before there is a final prototype released. This is very useful to me, because it is an outlining process, something that although I already do, I wish I were able to do better. It would be wonderful to write up an outline and have that be the key decider in everything that you write from that point on.

Lupe Fiasco and Ben Katchor
I have linked these two together for a particular reason. That being, they both talked about when you write sometimes you need a change of scenery. Lupe Fiasco spoke about needing to sometimes take a drive and listen to the beat of whatever song he is currently working on, while Ben Katchor said he can do the writing anywhere, it is simply the cartoon drawings he needs to be centered for. This is helpful. Everyone gets stuck, and staring at the same spot on the bookshelf above your desk is not going to help change the fact that you are stuck. By looking for inspiration in other places you may think of things you wouldn’t have previously; even when you are working on a research project as opposed to a creative project. You may think of a clever way to word something, or perhaps a manner in which to use another topic to get more information into your piece.