In middle school I wrote horrible lovesick poetry to boyfriends. In high school I spent late nights in the laundry room pecking away at my dad\u2019s computer composing essays for my Honor\u2019s Lit class. In college I received an A- on an essay on religious freedom. A few weeks later my would-be husband had to go home to write an essay so I \u201clent\u201d him the A- essay so we could extend our date. He received an \u201cA++! This should be published!\u201d While miffed he received a better grade on my essay, twenty-five years and four kids later I do not regret my decision to lend him my essay.
These days writing looks like collecting a million notes for sermons in five composition notebooks littering my desk. I pull these notes from various resources including commentaries, newspapers, cheesy Instagram posts, and books, while waiting for inspiration. I then take a shower and write my first paragraph in the steam on my shower door. Finally, I force myself to do what I call \u201cbutt in seat\u201d writing two thirds of a crappy first draft. After a few days of deluding myself, believing the sermon is written I erase the whole thing and write the real sermon. In whole it takes me at least 40 painful hours.
The reason it takes so long is because I tend to perfectionism. I tell you this because a skill I hope to develop is the \u201cgood enough\u201d skill. (Obviously, I am trying out this skill in this blog post.) I also hope to use Ahrens\u2019 idea of the slip box , connecting my notes with more than wildly drawn arrows on pages in random composition books. My fear is that my shocking lack of organizational skills will make mastering the slip box a steep learning curve.
When I am reading to write, I mostly engage in inspectional reading. This seems to serve me well though I would like to develop the skill of remembering what I read! Adler addresses this saying, \u201cThe problem with speed reading then is the problem of comprehension. You cannot comprehend a book without reading it analytically.\u201d[2] He continues, \u201cNot only is reading, especially analytical reading, a very complex activity \u2013 much more complex than skiing \u2013 it is also much more of a mental activity.\u201d[3] As I stated before, I have to employ the \u201cbutt in seat\u201d method to get writing done. This is also true for reading. I would much rather be skiing. A skill I need to continue to develop is \u201cbutt in seat\u201d to move past inspectional reading to analytical and syntopical reading.
Ahrens, S\u00f6nke. How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace, 2017. 25-33
Adler, Mortimer Jerome, and Charles Van Doren. How to Read a Book: Simon and Schuster. New York, New York. 63
Adler and Van Doren. How to Read a Book. 82<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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