Why I Write project
The Why I Write project was the first writing piece of the semester in the Minor in Writing Gateway course and it was posed to the class immediately after having read essays from both Joan Didion and George Orwell on the same topic. I have included the three stages that my writing went through as I considered this question. It was a challenging concept to grapple with, but I'm very happy with the answers that the introspection produced. I feel, if given the time, I could write two or three times the amount I did on the subject, including more exploration into the connection between the past, present, and future reasons that I write.
The Prewrite
I began my approach with this question by brainstorming all the reasons I could think of that justify my compulsion to write. Quite a few came from Didion and Orwell, but I was able to come up with a fair few that were unrelated to either author. After getting out all of my ideas, I then reorganized them into three broad categories: because I like to tell stories, because I like to be heard, and because I have an ego to be stroked.
The First Draft
I started this draft out by taking my reorganized brainstorm and creating a structure based on the three broad categories of reasoning I'd decided upon. The content, for the most part though, remained word vomit. The essay at this point was still basically one long ramble with minimal direction. I figured my next step was going to be taking the points and focusing on a few specific sub-points in order to find a more consistent tone and to hone in on concrete examples rather than abstract hypotheticals. Instead, in between this draft and the final I completely restructured the paper.
The Final Draft
While the categories of storytelling, beind heard, and my ego worked for the paper and aren't untrue, they shifted into new categories: past, present, and future reasons that I write. The content was rearranged and twisted some to suit the new categories, but it was a very easy transition. I believe these suit the content much better, but there is still tweaking and expansion that could happen given the opportunity. My reasoning is always evolving.