What Actors could Teach Writers

Upon reading the first image (Jane Austen strolling carelessly through the garden as a means of relaxing herself before writing) I immediately knew this would be a interesting perspective on the writing process. Boice did not disappoint. While some of his points are hard to swallow, on the whole I admire his dedication to helping writers learn how to cultivate a enjoyable and relaxed writing experience. As someone who often fantasizes about sitting down to write at a relaxed pace but rarely does so, I appreciate any advice on how to better control my writing habits so that this ideal can become a reality.

One of the most difficult sections to agree with to me was the abandonment of writing "binges." I often look forward to a writing rush where everything in my mind seems to transfer effortlessly to the page. Of course, often looking back, the product of such rushes is never very polished and often borders on the edge of incomprehensible. Still, I still believe that such rushes have a place. When I wrote my master's these there was really just a couple of weeks that generated the majority of my content, and although it was unrefined, I still felt an immediate sense of ease that most of my thoughts were out there - even if they were not all grammatically correct. I believe that the most time consuming part of the writing process comes after the "writing rush," where the writing is left to gather up what has been written and synthesize it into something elegant and (hopefully) profound. Is this writing process valid or one to be replicated? Boice certainly would not think so, but I am not so sure.

Looking at Boice's suggested process, I agreed with much of what he said, even if many aspects of it seemed a little obvious (though vitally important). For example, I always have my students practice Boice's first step, waiting, whether they like it or not. It seemed that the majority of Boice's article was targeted towards writers that have not been exposed to basic college composition materials. He presented free-writing as if it were a completely new idea. Same with "understanding the conversation before entering it." These are basic composition theories that I teach every year in freshman composition.

The next idea of making sure a writer is relaxed and comfortable while writing seems to be obvious but it rarely practiced. As a theater major, I know that before we tried to accomplish anything substantial, be it rehearse a scene, practice lines, or perform a dance, we would take serious amounts of time relaxing ourselves. I agree with Boice that this same attention seen in many other artistic disciplines should also be directly applied to writing. It is amusing that there is so much resistance to these seemingly self-explanatory ideas in any other discipline. Anytime where the mind and body are being used to perform a creative act, from a dance to a piece of writing, it is only logical that it should be relaxed. It would be preposterous to walk up to a actor doing relaxation exercise before an emotionally tense scene and reprimand him or her for compromising the artistic integrity of the scene, but this is exactly what writers do when they complain that they must be emotionally or physically compromised in order to write "artistically." Another good point that Boice raises is a matter of longevity. If a writer must be uncomfortable and emotionally drained in order to write well, how on Earth can he or she be expected to repeat the activity over and over until retirement? Actors recognize that they must do the same play over and over, night after night for months or years at a time, and if they have to compromise themselves in order to perform it "well," then the the acting would be both dangerous and impractical. What relaxation does is allow the artist, be they actor or writer, to perform his or her art while maintaining emotional and physical health. Overall I completely agree with Boice that relaxation's part in the writing process is both wildly underestimated and over-criticized.

The irony of course is even as I write this, I recognize that the very act of "blogging" is one that encourages "binge" type writing in a often single, marathon session. Perhaps that is why Dr. Strickland asked us to perform this act in chunks... Either way, it is time to stop my "writing rush" and edit my work to see if any of what I said makes sense. Here's hoping!