The necessity of an audience, purpose, and/or context to begin writing, as well as the effectiveness of picking apart topics to see what they failed to consider—these are both things I, as well as others, have become so attuned to when it comes to writing that they have become innate, and that’s an issue. When something becomes innate, it turns into muscle memory. This can cause an all too comfortable situation, where people allow themselves to write on autopilot and, as a result, become sloppy or even begin to struggle with writing even off autopilot, their knowledge of what tactics made writing so easy having deteriorated.
Think of writing as driving; in the beginning, people are very cautious, so as to not end up in an accident, but as the years of driving experience pile on, people become comfortable enough to pull out their phone mid-drive—as I’m sure many of us have witnessed firsthand. Once this comfort gets disrupted with an incident of any measure, people begin to notice they need to pay better attention; they need to drive as cautiously as they once did.
But it’s not so easy as just paying more attention. People need to review and remember what they once knew to be as sharp as they used to. Any skill dulls over time from a lack of use, and writing is the same. Periodically studying it counteracts that. Even a quick read on writing is effective; while I was reading “You Can’t Teach “Writing in General”” by Elizabeth Wardle, I was initially in partial disagreement with her statement that to begin writing you must have, at the very least, “an audience, purpose, or context.” I argued that while, yes, something complex like an essay requires such foundation for cohesiveness, forms of writing like a shopping list or private journal do not. Then I realized, they did. Their audience (the writer/user of the shopping list or private journal) and purpose (getting all the groceries done in one go or preserving memories) simply became so innate to the point I forgot what they were—and reviewing this unwittingly through Wardle’s article helped me remember.
This was not a one time occurrence, either. “Looking for Trouble: Finding Your Way into a Writing Assignment” by Catherine Savini had a similar effect on me. Reading it felt like returning to the days I was being taught how to develop a stronger essay: find any issues or inconsistencies in a topic, look into counterarguments, so on and so forth. It reminded me why I do what I have been doing for so long, subconsciously. With this, I was even able to figure out—or remember, rather—how to go about strengthening one of my personal writing projects that I have been struggling with for a few months. Studying writing, be it unintentionally, brought the knowledge I lost in my subconscious back to my consciousness.
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