I wasn’t sure what to expect with writing as cooking. I think I expected it to say that you need a list of ingredients in order to write. However, it was more about the process of cooking than they actual materials used. It took me a while to understand the analogy. It was a good visual when it illustrated external cooking as a mixing of dry ingredients and internal cooking as a dissolving of them in water. It was interesting seeing the ways the Elbow drew connections between the two.
I liked the idea of cooking as interaction. I have experienced times where two heads were better than one. There were moments when I was stuck or trying to get a certain idea across and I got frustrated and let someone else read it. They would read it and immediately see how it should be done or what I was doing wrong. With their criticism I was then able to write what I originally intended. The outsider always can read your material much more cleanly and detached since they don’t see what I think- they see what I wrote. They can see the difference and it can help me fuse the two together.
I have had the problem with noncooking where I stop and evaluate my writing while I am doing it. I was writing a short story this week and I tried to do it without stopping or evaluating. I started with one idea and realized I didn’t like it and instead of going back and rewriting it, I just kept writing. I didn’t revise, instead I just wrote as though it didn’t exist. It worked really well because I didn’t have to worry about how to introduce the new idea until after I finished writing it. It was almost like desperation writing at times because I just kept writing it even though scenes didn’t really match up or have flow, but the story’s essence came out. This made it much easier to revise.
I think it is ironic that Elbow states that one of reasons that the old model of writing still exists is because “it promises structure and control.” This is something that we are taught we need and it is something that makes you feel like you are in power of the writing. It makes it sound as though it is easier to write with outlines and structured guidelines. It is ironic that this book argues that the old style delivers the exact opposite by being the cause of frustration and wasted time and energy. This is how I felt about it when I was in school.
I also enjoyed the list of writing suggestions for when you have trouble writing at the conclusion of the chapter. I think that they all sound effective. I wonder if anyone would decide to use any of these methods in their classroom. Maybe have everyone do the 30 minute writing activity where they have to tell a good story in half an hour on paper. I think it would be encouraging to tell students that they can use all- purpose beginnings for a first draft and for you to tell them that they don’t have to worry about word choice at the beginning. It might take the pressure off and let their writing flow more freely. You could work on cleaning up the writing the second time around when they already have a basic idea and movement for the piece.