Prewriting

• Writing is hard.
• What ends up on the page isn’t like a train of thought.
• The synthesis is more elaborate and consists many, very different pieces.

What is Prewriting?

• A written form of ideation (process of coming up with ideas)
• Think of it as a form of sketching
• Give your left brain a break

What does it do?

• Clarifies your ideas
• Allows you to catalog and store your ideas
• Starts “idea Darwinism” of main idea(s)

A Two Stage Process

• The “From Nothing to (Lot of) Something” Stage
• The “From Chaos to Order” Stage

Stage 1: Nothing to Something

• Relatively easy mechanically
• Relatively easy mentally
• Yet, miraculously, creates lots of raw material to work with

Tools of the Trade

• Matrices
• Lists – “mind puke”
• “Stickiestorming” – combination of sticky notes and listing
• Freeform Prose -just write, conversational, personal, limited structure

End Results

• Shows you what you know
• Shows you what you don’t know
• Reveals themes or even main idea(s)

Stage 2: From Chaos to Order

• Main idea(s) fewer = better
• Supporting idea(s) more = better
• Detailed information

Tools of the Trade

• Mindmaps
• Outlines
• Flowcharts/Venns
• Doodles – “drawn ideation”

End Results

• Helps to arrange your ideas
• Adds structures on your thinking
• Builds solid support for your main ideas

Channelling Jeff

• Do it early
• Do lots of it
• Do it surrounded by your resources
• Do it with David Bowie
• Leave the editing to someone else’s left brain
• If you must edit yourself, do so after you’ve been away for a while

Assignment

• Groups
• Pick a topic from a non-you blog post
• Share topics
• Prewrite it for Thursday