Ward Just wrote, "Ward Just: Sitting Down a Novelist, Getting Up a Playwright" in a manner that was much akin to a stream of consciousness style. This article was very appealing to me as it is reflective of how I think as in where one topic morphs into the next in a free flowing format.
Mr. Just also uses several analogies to describe his writing process. For example, he explains how a poorly played golf game can be similar to a writer who is struggling to find the right sentence to close a paragraph (Just, 200) and goes on to describe his theater experience in a foreign language and how it inspired him to write the play, which eventually allowed him to morph from a novelist into a playwright, even if it was only one play, he did it. He wrote a play that was acted out on a stage with a paying audience.
I agree with Mr. Just where he says, "I have never thought writing novels was hard work. Hard work was commercial fishing out of New Bedford or Gloucester or driving a 16-wheel truck." To me, writing comes easy whereas heavy, physical labor does not. I can use words to tell a story, describe a process, or explain business requirements. Words are powerful.
Throughout a recent communications course, the importance of fact verification and relying on the Journalists Code of Ethics to ensure that communication is appropriate. Neither of these practices would be relevant in most fictional works, such as the novels that Mr. Just write. He writes directly from the mind and the heart and I find this to be similar to my writing method. Get the words on the paper, see where they go, and then go back and do the editing to ensure that the message is clear for the intended audience.
All in all, Mr. Just and I are aligned in how we choose to write. I am confident that if Mr. Just were to write non-fiction, he would not be very likely to check his facts or verify his sources based on his attitude towards living as an expatriate in a foreign country, where he opted to fill in the blanks of the language that he didn't understand instead of immersing himself in the learning new language. On this point, we are very different as I would be likely to ensure my words are accurate before publishing and I would be unlikely to make things up as I go if I were writing nonfiction, however I do enjoy people watching and making up stories about the people that I see.
I think it's important to remember that everyone will adjust their writing practices based on their experiences, the audience, and the type of media being created.
REFERENCE:
Just, Ward. (June 5, 2000). Ward Just: Sitting Down a Novelist, Getting Up a Playwright. The New York Times on the Web, Writers on Writing. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/060500just-writing.html
