Page 34 - Voices-2022-02

QUARTER NOTE

The Joy of Writing Revisited

David Freedman, PM2

As most of you know, the Grammarian is
to include key points
the arbiter of grammar usage, pointing out
to introduce to the
extraneous words in our speech patterns and
audience, and then end
noting the excellent uses of language that
with a strong conclusion
speakers practice during a meeting. And of
and call to action. Short
course, we have our Word of the Day which
stories and novels don’t
changes each week, oftentimes (though not
always follow that same
always) being related to the theme of the
pattern. Even though I love
meeting.
writing fiction, I fell into the
As a writer, I have a particular fondness
trap of thinking I needed
for the role of Grammarian since creating
to know everything that
outstanding poetry or prose requires knowing
was going to happen before I
the strengths and pitfalls of written and spoken
told the full story. However, I’m
language. The problem I’ve noticed with this
an intuitive writer, and when I
style of learning is that it can lead to a type of
start working on the next writing
perfectionism. It can restrict the flow of your
project, I eventually find the
creativity to such an extent that it stymies
connections necessary to
your efforts to create a proper essay, story, or
create a workable story or
a great speech. In this regard, both writing
speech. It’s not something
and public speaking have at least one thing in
I can entirely explain; the
common. To create an eloquent piece of work
process is utterly natural, and if I were a bit wiser
that attracts and holds an audience’s attention
when I was younger, I would have accepted that
is a tricky balancing act.
exploring the boundaries of your imagination
It took me a long time to accept that
without knowing the full story in advance can be
uncertainty is a major part of the writing
the best form of writing. Yes, there are authors
process and that it’s okay to not know what’s
who believe that creating an outline is the better
coming. Curiously, in planning my speeches
way to go, and there’s nothing wrong with that
I never had this problem as I could create an
way of thinking. Using an outline when creating
outline in much the same way I wrote essays:
speeches can be wonderfully beneficial. However,
Write an introduction, the body of the speech
in my own life as a writer, intuition most often

34 ONE COMMUNITY