A Cat in the Mirror

When do you have a writer’s block in writing an essay, email, a letter, or just about anything? Introduction? Body? or Conclusion? My writer’s block begins to form in writing an introduction. How to begin requires clarity, creativity, and cleverness of me in terms of presenting a subject matter of writing lucid and interesting. Everyone has of course different points when it comes to encountering his/her writer’s block. But most of the time, such difficulty results from a lack of organization of an idea, a thought sprung from the mind that needs to be disciplined. Thus, I have briefly summarized the following methods of taming your free spirit of writing:

A. Writing as a four-step process:

1. You think of things you want to say-as many as possible as quickly as possible.
2. You figure out a sensible order for those thoughts; that is, your outline.
3. With the outline as your guide, you write out a draft.
4. After setting the draft aside for a matter of minutes or days, you come back and edit it.

As developed by Dr. Betty Sue Flowers, a University of Texas English professor, each of the above-referenced steps are also called by the following names according to the corresponding intellectual functions:

(1)  Mad man, the creative spirit who generates ideas (Brainstorming);

• Your essential Imagination, however sloppy and raw it may be
• In this stage, you are going for copious thoughts as many as possible
• Jotting down ideas in the absence of sentences and paragraphs
• Fast and furious outpourings of thoughts, ideas.
• Need to protect against the Judge disapproving the sloppiness.
• Save the Judge for later stage in the writing; otherwise, the Madman could be at considerable risk, causing ‘writer’s block”.
• Writers commonly have little battles in their heads if the hypercritical Judge is allowed to start “censoring” ideas even as the Madman is trying to develop them.
• “Keep the Judge out of the realm of the Madman!”
• The Non-linear outlined ideas in resemblance of the Madman frame of mind.

(2)  Architect, the planner who ensures that the structure is sound and appealing (Syntax builder to make a sensible, effective sentence structure;

• He must arrange the ideas with sensible sentence structures with the right words.
• An architectural design/outline with specifications is to be made for the next step.
• However, for the Architect to do his job well, the Madman should be given a complete free rein to exercise his right of free thoughts without linguistic boundaries.

(3)   Carpenter, the builder who makes the corners square and the counters level (Crafting of words for the effect of articulation); and

• He is the “leader”, who will lead the writing to an effective force of communicability.
• According to the Architect’s design with specifications, the Carpenter builds the draft.
• Ideally, the Carpenter writes quickly, treating the outline as a series of gaps that need filling in.
• In fact, although this stage is where writing begins in earnest, the carpentry is the hardest part of writing in terms of producing a draft.
• The reason for this difficulty results from the absence of the Madman (Thinking of Ideas) and Architect (Sequencing the Ideas) stage to singlehandedly use the Carpenter (Verbalizing the Ideas).
• Such disregard for these Two Men stages is out of the context; the Carpenter’s job would be relatively easy with the proper jobs by these two men.
• Keep the autocratic Judge out of sight at this stage; otherwise, you will slow down yourself. The Carpenter is a Writer, not an Editor.
• Still, though, the Carpenter must exercise considerable discretion in following the Architect’s plans by making architectural refinements here and there when producing paragraphs and sections.

(4) Judge, who checks to see whether anything has gone wrong (Editing of the product to ensure communicability thereof).

• The Judge finally takes over when you have a raw draft.
• You can now fix the ragged edges.
• The Judge does everything from smoothing over rough transitions to correcting grammar, spelling, and typos. (The Smooth Syntax Operator)
• Or the alternative name is “Janitor” who tidies up little messes.

B. Visualization of the works (as in a legal case)

1. The nonlinear Whirlybird by the Mad Man

2. The Design Plan by the Architect

1)   Main issue: The cause of action and the question thereon. e.g., “Upon being reprimanded, Penfold threatened his supervisor by saying, “I am gonna get you for this!” The supervisor immediately fired him. Was the termination justified?

2)  Detailed factual statement

3)  General principles re the cause of action. That is, the evidence on each element of his cause of action, causation, and damages.e.g., re: threatened violence at work

• Corporate policy statement
• Type of threat involved
• General/specific
• Violent/nonviolent
• Effect on others
• Coworkers
• Target
• Examples relating to safety in modern workplace

4)  Caselaw on similar threats

5)  Decision in this case: the facts suggest that threat was real. Internal appellate-review board agreed.

6)  Conclusion