Something popped into my mind the other day and I think I need to expand my idea of the mind of a writer because behind the skill of learning to be a writer I think that there are three aspects that get developed: our creative side, our ability to write and to edit the work.
The creative or imaginative side, of us is incredibly powerful but it is only a small part of writing, we have to write those ideas down and then be able to edit them to produce work that will generate something close to what we imagined in the first place for the minds of our readers. We learn the skill of:
1. Creating the story, from our dreams, from our imagination, usually using one of two ways or a combination of both.
We can write with the inner critic switched off and then figure out what the story is about through an analysis of the chapter and scene intentions (see use of a beat sheet described in ‘Nail your novel’ by Roz Morris)
Or decide on the story we want to write first, what will happen and the backgrounds of characters, write a synopsis or plan, and then write it.
2. Learning the craft of writing, the ability to find and place the right words down to produce the illusion for our readers.
3. Editing the story, analysing the plot and subplots by scenes and chapters, and beginning the re-write by moving into the writer/creator head again. Read and analyse the second draft. Re-write again. Analyse. Re-write. Back and forth.
I think we move between three minds as a writer and each mind can be learnt and developed:
The creative mind: free spirit, creates ideas, keeps the prose flowing, free-writing.
The writing mind: masters the craft of writing, finding the right words to place on the page.
The editing mind: critical thinker, analyser who can understand the overall imagined structure, the overall plot arc, the chapter arcs, the scene intentions, the layout of a scene, its paragraphs, sentences, specific detail, and the words that make the story come alive.
And then when we take our writer’s hat off, we become the person we are to the rest of the world.
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That’s a really interesting way to look at the process – the three minds, I’ll remind myself of that when I’m using one of the perspectives I find harder – probably the editing mind!
Thanks for your comment. I do find that one the hardest too. Being in an editor mind can feel quite ruthless, cutting, pruning and then switching into writer mind to re-write scenes. But hopefully I’m getting better at it as I practice.