"The Doing is the Thing:" A Note on How I write

A re-occurring mantra in the excerpts we read from Poehler is, "The doing is the thing. The talking and worrying and thinking is not the thing" (xv). I find this to be especially moving because it's simply true. One thing I have learned is that nothing is truly an accomplishment until you make it so. Nothing happens until you make it happen. This takes a lot of doing. Another thing I have learned is that doing is hard, but that everything in my life that has been worth doing, everything that I look back on and think "I'm so glad I did that," has been hard. And most of the things I have been most grateful for having done have also been the hardest things I've ever done. This much I know to be true.

One of the hardest things for me to do is to write, which may seem funny to those who know me because it's arguably one of the things I do best and I do a lot of it. (I say this with a pride for which I won't apologize because it took me a lot of work and a lot of doing to get to a point where I can confidently say it is one of the things I do best.) Despite this, I still struggle with writing. I talk and worry and think a lot about it before I do it, but I struggle the most with just doing it. For this reason, I also struggle immensely with deadlines and (you guessed it) I'm a bit of a procrastinator. But another thing I know to be true is that in doing, there is also trying, and this is valid too. I am always trying to be a better writer, and I think this all comes down to habits. (As is the case with nearly any self-improvement.) I strive to have good writing habits and I'd like to tell you about a couple of them which are effective for me, and some that aren't great but just happen as a result of who I am as a person. Because nothing makes someone more likeable than the fallibility which makes us all human, am I right?

One of the first things I do (and that most of you probably do too) when I write doesn't have anything to do with the actual writing itself, but is something that helps me immensely when I have to write a paper: I highlight anything that seems at all notable to me. Often, I end up using these excerpts in a paper or sometimes even as the whole inspiration for the paper. Sometimes, they end up not being important or used, but I still like them for the same reason I love buying used books that already have notes and markings in them: they give me a little glimpse at my thought process when I read the text and can help me formulate new ideas about a text when I go back to read it again.

The next thing I do, which also has nothing to do with the actual writing itself, is I create a happy space that is conducive to a positive mindset and which seems to help me with the hardest part of writing: the getting started. This week this space has been my porch upon which I have rigged a tapestry/sheet to block out the sun that beats down on my porch. This gives the space a magical, Bohemian feeling and makes me mildly nostalgic for the blanket fort days of my childhood:

Another thing I like to do, and have gotten more serious about doing, is to make flowcharts to help me map out my paper. These used to be very free flowing and I made them by hand, but now have found that doing it on my computer has been very useful:

Now some things that are kinda fun and show you that if the beginning of this post makes it sound like I have my shit together, I've misled you! Ha! I start with the best intentions but in time, and usually after a couple of hours of hammering away at multiple assignments I give you this scene:

Staying tidy is not my strong suit. Note the spilled coffee on my Amy Poehler excerpts. I pretty much always have coffee while I'm writing and as mentioned, staying tidy is not my strong suit.

Also, now that my "office" is outside, this makes me more inclined to chain smoke, so now that has become part of my writing process as well. On the bright side, I get a lot more work done because I don't have to take breaks to go outside and smoke since I'm already there. The not-so-bright side is obvious.

 Yes, I know it's super gross and I need to quit, but I'm a strong, independent, adult woman and you can't tell me what to do. Nanana boo boo.  I'll quit when I'm thirty which is in a year. Tick tock.

So now you know probably too much a little bit more about me and what my writing process looks like. I have the best intentions but, as in life, things don't always go according to plan no matter how organized you are. The important thing is that I'm doing the damn thing, and "the doing is the thing."


PS: in case you don't watch Parks and Rec, here are a couple of clips of the scenes that Poehler wrote about in her "I laughed the hardest" bulletpoints about her cast mates:

The scene in the "Two Parties" episode with April:

The scene with Chris Traeger playing air banjo: