Write to Someone and Write More

It is a basic human need to have conversation.  yet, often conversation can move so quickly that we don't get a chance to know what we're thinking or learning.  Sometimes the conversation gets off on a topic we didn't expect nor does it hold interest for us.  Sometimes the conversation becomes emotional and forward thinking is interrupted.

As a writer, dialogue is a natural process even if it occurs in our minds.  One way to help ourselves know what we are thinking is to start a conversation with someone (your choice) about what we're thinking.  As in freewriting, it is not necessary that we know what we're thinking before we start.  In fact, if we know what we're thinking before we start, we could have a problem.  Peter Elbow (Writing with Power, p. 43) has said that "When you see a piece of really vacuous writing, you can be almost certain that it was the result of someone's feeling she had to figure out her theses before starting to write and then stick to it at all costs."

In writing a letter to someone (I keep a journal where I write to the same someone all the time), you will find that if you pick someone who you believe really wants to listen to you, that words will flow, that you will find your voice… and keep it.

In my experience, writing a letter to someone and NOT sending it can facilitate the writing process even more than if you send it because you can be truly uncensored.  We have a genuine opportunity to see what we think and feel and decide where we want to go next with the writing when we do not put the requirement on us to send the letter.

One additional suggestion in the letter writing experience is to answer the letter by taking the perspective of the other person we're writing the letter to.  Writing another letter from that person's perspective gives us the opportunity to further know what we're thinking.

Remember, if we have the other person in mind (audience) as we're writing our first letter, we cannot be truly sure of what we want to say, because that internal censor will likely appear.  However, writing to someone where we don't send the letter, takes the pressure off, and yet utilizes the freewriting process to learn and grow as a person and as a writer.