Habits of the Creative Mind: Beginning

 

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Beginning...

Beginning is the word of the week here in this blog and regarding writing, "beginning" can be a very tough thing for me. I have had a lot of papers and assignments in my life that I have known about for days and sometimes weeks. However, I always seem to wait until the last minute to start writing. This is not so much because I have nothing to say, but because I have no clue where to start.

            

 According to Merriam-Webster, beginning simply means, "the point at which something begins" or "the first part." In an essay, the beginning could be choosing a topic or argument to discuss. As mentioned before, the ideas are always flowing around in my head, but I have trouble knowing where to start. Another way to begin writing is by thinking of a title. Sometimes I like to wait until I finish writing to pick a title, but if I am having trouble starting the essay, no title ever comes to fruition.

           

The hardest part about beginning an essay is boiling all of my ideas from my jumbled head into just one so I can begin the writing process. Usually, I have an ending in mind without even thinking of where I am going to start. One thing that has helped me in the past is to outline and put all of my thoughts down on paper just to see what ideas I already have. Because of this, it is easier to begin a paper without trying to remember everything as I go.

    

According to the advice given by the book on writing, beginning and writing an essay should not involve the generic 5-paragraph essay with a thesis, topic sentences, and a conclusion. Never will you see an example of this outside of the world of English class. Rather, one should begin a paper with more complexity and genuine thought that leads them to even newer thoughts. If an idea leads to another idea, beginning the writing process will be much easier because you are coming up with organic material and not just reiterating the same topic over and over again.

 The book states that, "a beginning is also an ending" (15). This is a great way to look at it especially for me because sometimes, the start of my papers come after I already know how they are going to end. Down below, this fun video does a great job of explaining how to start an essay and keep it going throughout the whole paper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVLOOtKFKOI

Habits of the Creative Mind: Asking Questions

Asking Questions

Asking questions to further enhance my writing is not an entirely new idea for me, yet it is something I should strive to do more. Rather than summarizing and answering one question or prompt, I need to open the topic up even more by asking my own questions during my writing. The authors doubt that there is a "bad" question, but ask, "What makes a good question?" (54) This makes me think about how many questions I have daily and consider if every single one really served a purpose. 

    

By reading the RadioLab story of how the 2 guys start with a broad question and narrow it down into even more complex ideas was very eye-opening. I could not help but wonder how they seemed to come up with the questions off the top of their heads and why it is that they chose to tackle some of life's biggest questions? 

    

Next, I read on to the section with Donovan Hohn and his travels in search of the plastic bath toys. For him, it all started as just a few questions and eventually he quit his job in search of the answers. Why would he quit his job and search for something that seemed so unknown? I am sure he had questions like that for himself when he was traveling, but those questions led to more questions and he later wrote a very observant and reflective book over his search and questions he asked. 

    

Later in the chapter, we find Michael Pollan contemplating the ethics of eating meat. Why is it that he chose to ask a probably unanswerable question? I may not know why and he may not know either, but his questions developed into more very articulate questions that developed into 2 books. The title of these are The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. 

    

In order to truly reflect on what I just read, I feel it is only appropriate to ask a question. Why is it that questions open up so many more ideas then some answers? What makes a question one to leave everything behind and search after like Donovan Hohn?

The video down below essentially questions, questions and does so phenomenally. Karen Maeyans is an excellent speaker and she gives a great discussion regarding the value of asking questions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZIuAQw8RA4