I got a little serious yesterday, so here’s a little levity. Also, I laughed when I was rereading some of yesterday’s post about this blog being “about reality.” So here’s a heavy dose of fiction.

When I taught Composition at NDSU, I had Fiction Freewriting Fridays. This was one of the most successful prompts with my students, so now I’d like to try it.

 

“The trailer was just sitting in the parking lot.” Troy was still vibrating with energy, several hours after the heist. “So I backed my pick-up up to it, and next thing I know I’m cruising through town with a pirate ship behind me.”

I glanced out the window at the stolen homecoming float in the driveway. Yet another in a series of ever-escalating pranks between the two high schools in our city.

“You’re not just going to keep it in your driveway are you? That’s just asking to get your house egged and your truck keyed.” I raised my eyebrows at Troy. He was alright as a boyfriend, but it was true what they say about teenage boys and the undeveloped prefrontal lobe.

“Babe. I’d like to see them try. The guys and I are camping out in the yard tonight with paintball guns. Anyone who comes for this float will be marked!”

“It wasn’t enough to totally destroy them in their own homecoming football game? Whose idea was it to steal that pirate ship the night before the parade, anyway?”

“Good writing is clear thinking made visible.” -Bill Wheeler

I have a paperweight on my desk with that phrase on it. Is it accurate? What would you change it to? “Good writing is….?”

I agree with the spirit of this quote, but it could be misleading in the fact that it implies that the clear thinking comes before the good writing. But if this were the case, there would be no good writing.

For me, writing is the process of clarifying my thinking. When I was in grad school for English (for a year, pre-baby), my catchphrase became “go type some stuff.” Whether it was actually a paper, a group project, or simply to rearrange my thoughts to share aloud, I found a great deal of clarity in closing my mouth and putting my fingers to the keys.

You can find this suggestion in a lot of places. It’s the root of keeping a journal. The act of writing helps us to understand our thoughts and ourselves that much better. Some people swear by a certain pen or paper or keyboard. It doesn’t really make a difference to me, but often I find myself reaching for either the computer or a pencil. Apparently, I like to have the option to erase as I’m going along. (That’s something I just realized as I typed this. See, it does work!)

I keep wanting to write the sentence: “Good writing is more than just clear thinking though.” But when I type that, I get hung up. I don’t know what comes next. I think good writing starts with clarifying your thoughts, but the best writing goes beyond that.

I can write something “good” that makes my thoughts clear to me, but if it doesn’t connect with another reader, it doesn’t reach its full potential as a text. There will always be bits of writing that are inherently personal, that don’t want to connect with others. And that can be “good” writing.

Stepping beyond the “good,” into the “better” or “best,” requires broadening one’s thinking to include others. The challenge is empathy.

Right now, I really don’t have empathy. I’m having a frustrating afternoon. I don’t think I’m doing quite enough social activities lately. I need a little more human connection. But, I want to be invited to do something, I don’t want to start it. I don’t want to say, “Hey let’s go do something!” This is so selfish and unrealistic and I’m ashamed of feeling this way.

I’m not happy with this post. It’s all rambly and useless. The point of this was to write things that people could relate to. And this is nonsense. Who am I to think that I can say it better than someone who’s got a quote printed in a paperweight?

This post has gone a direction that I wasn’t expecting. But this blog is about reality and about writing, and so I’m going to leave it like this. I could erase the struck-out text, but that would be putting a false front on. I’m not looking for pity, just realizing some truths about my heart.

Good writing is clear thinking made visible. Thoughts are made clear by the process of writing. Better writing is edited writing. The best writing is something I’m still striving towards. Writing that is clear and edited and honest all at the same time.