Temptations in the Library

I worked on my Freaks and Geeks project again today. I find it really challenging each time I sit down to read what I’ve written during previous work sessions because my temptation is always to rewrite what I’ve already written rather than write new material. When my students and I talk about writing processes, I tell them about how my “internal editor” tells me how stupid I am. I think they probably think I’m joking. But I’m not. It’s a strong internal voice that tells me over and over that what I’ve written is crap and that I should delete it.

I talk to my students about free writing to overcome the internal editor. This is a technique where you just write continuously about a topic for a set period of time without worrying about grammar and spelling and all the other things that wake up the internal editor. I have successfully used this technique in the past but didn’t think about it today. As a result, my day was not particularly productive.  I don’t really have a whole lot to say about this other than I have to remember to free write next time so I can continue to be productive.