After all these years, a way of writing is still a way of writing

 

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A Way of Writing is an essay written by American poet William Stafford (1914 - 1992) and published in nineteen seventy. In the short essay, he details his writing philosophy, beginning with this first sentence:

"A writer is not so much someone who has something to say as he is        someone who has found a process that will bring about new things he    would not have thought of if he had not started to say them."

     In the summer of nineteen eighty-six, an English professor at UNC-Greensboro used Stafford's essay as the basis of a writer's prompt for his students. I sat at a desk in his class and wrote the following response: 

    I agree with Stafford's statement that "a writer is not so much someone who has something to say ..." because I feel that it is the process that accomplishes the writer's objective and not necessarily the final product. I have been away from writing creatively for a long while, but when I have, in the past, found time to put thoughts on paper, the process has been a great release. It is like confiding in a friend, yet you know you can trust your pen and paper, where a friend might betray your confidence.

    Stafford's concept of receptivity is quite moving. I like the idea of sitting in the pre-dawn hours with pen in hand and waiting for a "nibble." The quiet and solitude of this scene becomes an inspiration to me by just picturing it in my mind. Nothing is more peaceful than removing yourself almost completely from the world and concentrating only on your thoughts. It is then that the words flow freely on your paper and you don't have to "try" to think of something to write.

    I like the freeness of writing. Like running, you can do it alone, it stimulates you, and afterward you feel a sense of accomplishment and also revived, ready to cope with problems or difficulties. Both activities are a release of tension, both help to clear my head. Sometimes it's hard to begin to take that first step or to write that first word. But after doing so, the rest comes easily. It is the process that is so rewarding.    

    I ran across this one-page piece in a notebook from my night-school college years. Here in this post, I copied it, word for word (skipping over the two strike-throughs), and this is the funny thing: I wrote it forty years ago, but it shows the same writing style as now, even after all those decades have passed. In addition to that, I conclude that I feel the same today about writing as I did then, and that sitting in the pre-dawn hours with pen in hand and waiting for a nibble is still attractive. The scene has played out over and over, like a recurring dream.

    Reading this again years later makes me wonder if one's writing style is innate or learned. If I am pressed for an answer, I will say that it is a combination of the two, with the clarification that innate carries the bigger weight. In the nineteen eighties, I had minimum writing experience. Now, after years of toiling with words, my style is clearly the same as way back then, and I find comfort in knowing that, in at least one way, little has changed over the years.

    

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