The Writer's Process: Getting Your Brain in Gear by Anne Janzer

Author:Anne Janzer
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780986406249
Publisher: Cuesta Park Consulting
Published: 2016-06-10T05:00:00+00:00

Internal Research: Writing for Discovery

Having perused the external sources, now turn inside. Explore what you may already know or discover potential paths for research by thinking deeply about the topic.

For many people, the best way to discover a topic is to start writing—not a draft, but notes or thoughts to themselves. Learn and discover by working with the topic.

Donald Murray was a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, as well as an influential teacher of the craft. In his teaching, Murray emphasized the importance of writing for discovery: “The act of writing would tell me what I thought and felt. The draft would reveal what it had to say and how it should be said. Writing was not the result of thought and feeling, but an act of thought and feeling.”

Use the inner research phase also to get inside your ideal reader’s head, establishing empathy with the audience. Put yourself in the mind of a reader to understand their perspectives and anticipate their needs. It’s never too early to consider your ideal reader.

Part One of this book discussed freewriting as a method for practicing a state of flow. It also works well for conducting research into what you already know and want to find out.

Using the freewriting technique for inner research:

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