By: Rahmel Bailey
Ideally, I begin my writing process by trying to understand the prompt or the purpose for me writing. This usually takes me several minutes to read the instructions, and if it is a personal writing I find the correct notebook for that purpose. I have different notebooks where I organize different things. My next step, probably the most important, is to take out my pen and begin writing down all my initial thoughts. When I do this I attempt to empty my mind of all the irrelative thoughts. I quickly scribble sentences,
phrases, and words that I find fit and address the purpose. I attempt to write them even if doesn’t all make sense.
However, there are many instances when writing especially when I am not the most interested in the piece and I can’t think of any ideas to get on the page. In these situations, I again first attempt to understand the purpose and stare into space for a while. I sit somewhere from 10 to 30 minutes in silence at a comfortable place and begin brainstorming. I attempt to clear my mind and focus on the task of writing alone and begin thinking, rereading the prompt until thoughts come into my head. I think of how I can make it sensible and interesting to me.
The next step for me is to go over those thoughts and organize them into paragraphs, taking out the non-essential ideas and keep the most important. I also find the points that can be expanded on and turn those into their own paragraph or large snippets of a paragraph, while other points remain a sentence or two. I then create a thesis statement that brings the entire piece together. Once the thesis is created and there is an outline of the organized paragraphs I can begin to write my first draft of the essay. I do this by trying to write details for each paragraph or for snippets of the paragraph.
Once my draft is completed and has been edited for grammar I try to take a break and not look at it for several days. Then I come back to the writing and reread the piece and find ways that it can be improved. I then brainstorm the ideas and update my writing.
