I don’t believe that it’s possible to truly understand the process any writer goes through when writing. Sondra Perl’s think-aloud protocol is certainly one way to try to document it, but it’s not an effective way of going about it as Perl watched her subjects as they tried to articulate their thinking.
I think Berkenkotter has the right idea to “combine thinking-aloud protocols with the writers’ own introspective accounts.” Her subject, Donald M. Murray, an English professor, would record aloud his own writing process throughout his daily life (under no watchful eye of the observer). It’s certainly more effective than Perl’s methods, yet even Berkenkotter notes that “Introspective accounts made in medias res have not been possible thus far because no one has developed techniques that would allow a subject to write and comment on his or her processes between composing episodes.”
When I think about trying to copy Berkenkotter’s experiment, I think I just get overwhelmed. I like to talk to myself, not because I love the sound of my own voice, but because saying my thoughts aloud can help organize my thinking. For example, if I have an idea for a new story, I will write the idea down in my notes app on my phone, but out loud, I’m reading it to see if it’s feasible plot-wise and to know I’m not being overly ambitious and extrapolating my skills beyond what I’m actually capable of writing. In my week 5 blog post, “To Be Multifaceted,” I briefly mention that my brain works like some nuanced reasoning engine on rails, but what’s coming out is exactly what you expect from a sleep-deprived undergraduate student. Even now, as I write this blog post, I’m muttering this sentence under my breath because I’m organizing my thoughts into something physical (this Google document), and trying to translate myself into something readable for the assignment.
I’m not a talkative person, even if the topic is something I’m passionate and well-versed in. I can’t talk to myself for a long time or else I’ll just grow tired and go nonverbal for a little while. I say I don’t believe that we can understand the writing process in the same way that I don’t believe that it’s ever possible to properly translate languages from one to another; something is bound to get lost in the process, and the best we could do is squint through a foggy glass.
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