Page 141 - Student: dazed And Confused

Steinman recently suffered a number of severe health problems and is now working on new
projects. But both wrote extensively during these times which shows a great dedication to

their art. It also shows us that the best writers do not go through a major life event to make

something worthwhile but those who write regardless.
Risks are common-place, as are the rewards a writer can gain, but one of the biggest risks a

person can take is in the very act of putting pen to paper. That is the moment at which

decisions are made and chances are taken. We will discuss these chances further shortly

but the decision we make is to commit. Writers who are writing frantically to meet

deadlines and publishing dates may commit more to actually finishing their work than
anyone without that kind of restriction. These people commit to research, lending part of

their lives to it and to producing the very best end piece they can.

'The Architect strategy is the Plan, Compose,

Revise method traditionally taught in schools.

Architects make detailed plans and set down
headings to guide the composing.'

(Sharples, p115, 1998)

These types of writer are no more committed than any other type but they do have

characteristics such as extensive planning that demand more discipline than, say, a non-stop

writer who plan and revise much less but lend just as much time and effort to the end

product.
In much the same way, we trust that whichever style we have adopted to write is going to

be good enough for the reader. Communication is a keyword here. How does a person feel

sure enough that their audience is going to understand his story the way it was intended?

Should we be trying to tell people what a story is or, having done our job of making it,
should we let the public do their job of deciding what they want it to mean? Like in all

questions in this area there are more problems than answers. It all circles around to

confidence, self-belief, some may even say arrogance. It is impossible to even scratch one

decent sentence out if one does not believe in their own ability to do so. We be would live