It’s a rare occurrence that an entire period of one’s life is reserved for writing. Over the next three months, I must write ten chapters of my Master’s thesis. Other than my part-time job at the university and my Chinese lessons, this is my only task. I like writing and I always have. I much prefer a blank computer screen and a warm cup of tea over a classroom with plastic chairs and fluorescent lights. But no matter how much I like writing, it’s hard to write something this large, this quickly, and this important.
I remember both my high school and college writing teachers encouraging us to freewrite, the act of just typing (or scribbling) away for a set amount of time, without any concern for grammar, punctuation, or clarity. The idea is for you to get all of those tiny sparks of thought that run through your brain onto the page, so that maybe one of those sparks will turn into a concrete idea. Since this blog was originally meant to talk about challenging yourself, opening up to adventure, and embracing change, I think it makes sense to use it now as a stage for freewriting. It will help me get my words and creativity flowing. But don’t worry; there will be enough clarity for it to be worth reading!
I’m going to push myself to write once a week, helped partly by the wordpress.com challenge to be a daily or weekly writer in 2011. I’m a bit late to start, but everyone’s been hibernating these past few weeks anyway, right? WordPress has provided some fun prompts and links to get bloggers typing. Today they sent out a list of the top writing quotes. Here are my two favorite:
“Don’t get it right, just get it written.” -James Thurber
This is the best motivator for freewriting. At this point my brain is so overloaded with ideas about my thesis: international development aid, Chinese educational reform, volunteer tourism advertising, social justice theory, race and power in China, volunteer English teachers… The list could go on and on, but how do they connect? I will never know the right answer until I write. Just write.
“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.” -Benjamin Franklin
Keep doing things that are worth writing about. Writing is a way to remember, to live experiences over and over again. Why do anything not worth remembering? While writing this semester, I’m also applying to jobs in the field of international education and development. It should all come full circle. Being fully on the job search keeps me motivated to write a thesis (and cover letters) worth reading, and the kind of job I want will give me the chance to do things worth writing.
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