When I read Janet Emig's essay, "The Composing Process of 12th Graders", I was fascinated by what she had to say, even though she didn't really have much to say about 12th graders specifically. The interview with John Ciardi on pg. 231 was intriguing because he made an accurate correlation between the act of writing and the act of riding a bike. A writer does not stop to think about all the processes it takes to write, just as a rider does not think about all the processes it takes to maintain balance. He/she just does it. In my own experience, sometimes I look back at my work and ask "How did I do that?" There have been times when I've written things, creative and scholarly, and I was utterly amazed at how brilliant I sounded. I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, I'm just saying that I was surprised at even myself. I've even said, "Wow, did I really write that?" I couldn't fathom how such beautiful and interesting insights came from someone like me. I reflected on how this could be so and still have come to no definitive conclusions.
When Ciardi said that asking him to reveal his secret is asking him to tell lies, that's true too. It reminded me of an interview I'd read in which the interviewer was talking to Stephen King. The interviewer asked him a similar question, "Where do your ideas come from?" King replied in complete frustration, and I'll never forget this for as long as I live, "Don't ask me where my ideas come from because I DON'T KNOW!" Then later he described how sometimes, he makes up stories about where his story idea comes from just to get people to quit asking him that. Ciardi said something much like this as well. And in my experience, I find they're right. I don't know where my ideas come from. I just know they start out as vague daydreams that quickly start scratching their way through my mind like a wild animal. They don't leave me alone until I put them to paper. I don't think I've ever gone so far as to make up lies about this, but then again, I am still a fledgling writer. Maybe when I've earned world renown like Ciardi and King, I'll start exaggerating like they do.
Later, in the section titled "Antimonies" on pg. 238, she states: "Creators....are separated from the object and bored enough by creating it to put off completion until the psychologically appropriate time; and involved through their creation in 'working out of conflict and coalition within the set of identities that compose' their personality." After reading this passage, I wondered how many times I've stopped working on a project because "it just wasn't time yet"? I thought it was just my own private neurotic behavior, the product of my ADD, impatience, and immaturity. But this passage suggests it happens to many writers and I never knew that before. Could we writers know on a subconscious level that we are not capable - physically, mentally, and spiritually - of finishing a particular project until a given time, that our brains realize our work won't be as powerful if we try to force it to come at the wrong time? Do we have to be psychologically and spiritually ready to finish something? And what are the implications if the answers to these questions is yes?
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