4 minutes

Yesterday I attended my first Criminology Honours Seminar. Dr. Burtch had us (the students) exercise our writing skills by giving us 4 minutes to write non-stop about our greatest strengths as writers, as well as what we felt we needed to improve on. This is what I wrote by hand in 4 minutes (spelling and syntactical errors included):

"I know that I am a decent writer. I've been told so by various Literature professors, and realize that having an English degree helps. I am conscientious of specific word choices, and agonize (seriously) over creating the perfect sentence. My writing flows; can be unexpected and creative. I'm certain that my readers find my writing not-boring (exhilirating feels like an over-statement). At the same time I am an anxiety case. A few nights ago I spent 2 hours writing and re-writing a single paragraph. Resultantly, writing can be a painful experience, and one that seems to take longer than it should. I know that acquiring better organizational skills (such as completing a clearer outline of my essay before I venture into the wilderness and write it) would make the process easier and would concomitantly make my arguments tighter. I'm hoping to acquire a way to combat procrastination and a way to systematically organize my thoughts before I apply pen to paper."

The thing that strikes me most about my work in this exercise is that the writing feels strained and forced in the beginning. Nearing the end, I find that my writing starts to acquire a rhythm and fluidity. I don't think I do these kinds of exercises nearly enough, and already 4 minutes spent writing non-stop is revealing some of the stylistic and psychological tendencies that underlie my writing habits. What do you think, Rob? You seem to know me best in this sense.