Ask OASISWriting Process: Where Do You Find Your Writing Motivation?
Visual: Video opens to the opening title with the video series title, Faculty Voices: Walden Talks Writing, then the title, “Where do you find your writing motivation?”
Visual: The screen changes to show each speaker talking to the camera in their home offices. Each person’s name and college is listed as they speak.
Audio:
Dr. Darci Harland, College of Education and Leadership: Over the years, I have come to understand that to get into my writing zone there are a couple of elements that I personally have to consider. I am a morning person, and I can do my best writing at like three or four o'clock in the morning with a cup of coffee right next to me. So where I write is less important, I've been known to travel all over and so I don't care where I am. If I have my computer, it's early in the morning, and I have my coffee, I am set. I do not need anything else to get into my writing zone. However, another thing I do need is good prewriting. And then, I stick with it. Between the coffee, the morning, and the handwriting—my prewriting—I’m set to get into my writing zone.
Dr. Catherine Kelly, Office of Academic Support: I write best on my laptop in my living room. The living room has most natural light, so it invigorates me. I am not a morning person, so definitely not in the morning, so usually afternoon and at night my ideas are most flowing. So after, after a nice little relaxing morning, then the afternoon I start really working on my writing and taking breaks is most important.
Dr. Laurel Walsh, College of Education and Leadership: This is the worst possible answer for students, but it's just the truth of my life. And I wish that there weren't so many things going on in my existence, but I write beautifully under a punitive deadline. I write ecstatically when I have a due date. Every year I do NaNoWriMo with my best friend. For our process together is, we just really insist that we write every single day. We try to write about ten pages a day, we try to get to a really crazy amount of composition within one month, within 30 days. I write so much and so beautifully knowing that my best friend is waiting to see the things that I write and that we're holding each other responsible. So, for me, I need to give myself a deadline, even if it's not true, even if it's a completely fabricated, you know, the editor is waiting for this type of a deadline. If I don't have that goalpost, it's very hard for me to kick, so I need a deadline. And it is how I process and how I work. If I know something's due, if I know somebody's waiting for it, I can be inspired to compose. I wish I loved to write, I wish I didn't go kicking and screaming to the computer to put my fingers on the typewriter. I don’t have a time of day that I write, I don’t have any kind of trick to get myself to write, except that if it’s due, and I know somebody’s waiting for it, I compose like the dickens. If there's nothing urgent about what I'm writing, I am happy to do anything but write, I’ll find myself windexing the back of my refrigerator to avoid writing. The due date is for me the most inspirational and motivating principle of writing, and I've yet to find anything that inspires me like a very quickly approaching due date that I have to have this done by.
Visual: The video ends with the closing title with the video series title, Faculty Voices: Walden Talks Writing and the Writing Center’s e-mail address: writingsupport@mail.waldenu.edu.