Writing Behaviors

 Robert Zoellner's theory about "Talk Write" Theory (in Myers and Grey, 1983) is quite interesting because it positions writing as a behavior, not just as a series of isolated thoughts. Now what does it mean, then, that writing is a behavior? It suggests that when people write, they are engaging in a kind of ritual, from the time they pick up the pen to the first sentence they write. The difficulties of writing are not necessarily about mastering rules or trying to fill one's mind with ideas about "good" writing. Rather, it's the way a person engages in writing itself that makes the difference in how writing is experienced.
 Zoellner is writing from the perspective of behaviorism. While I don't totally agree with this school of thinking in its attempt to downplay the role of introspection in behavior, one thing I do get out of it is that sometimes one's thoughts begin with action, not the other way around.  When I am in the process of writing this blog, for instance, I often find myself procrastinating for want of a single idea I am going to decide to reflect upon. However, what gets me over that block is the act of writing itself: telling myself to even write a single paragraph tends to get me over the hump of "not knowing what to write". In fact, it's often the act of writing itself that tells me where I get stuck in the writing. This is a bit paradoxical, but the idea is that in doing the act, I actually know where I am creatively blocked, and what I might unconsciously be resisting.
   An example might be the common idea that writers have, "I have too many ideas to write about and I can't choose which one to focus on." This thought obviously can make a writer feel overwhelmed, but what happens if I just write in spite of that thought? Actually, there is almost a natural process of gradually narrowing the topic, similar to how racing thoughts tend to diminish when a person chooses to be present in a meditation method. Here, it's the act of writing that itself becomes the method, and not the actual content of the writing. Method becomes content, as the person's intentions begin to coalesce into words and one can express one's being through this single minded attention to the act of writing itself.
   This leads me to my other point, and that is: how a person engages in the act of writing can determine the way it is written as well as its quality. An example: if I am seated close to a window and keep getting distracted by passing airplanes every time I write a word, chances are I will probably write in a very choppy way. Moreover, I won't necessarily enjoy the writing itself when there are no flow moments- unless I am writing about the airplanes themselves, in which case the writing could flow as a meditation on that experience of watching.
 

Myers, M. & Gray, J (ed) (1983) Theory and Practice in the Teaching of Composition: Processing, Distancing, and Modeling. Urbana: Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English