Process Writing and a Link to a Post on Tricks for Distraction-Free Writing

Another blog to which I subscribe, lifehack.org, often writes about writing. The author also writes about productivity. He is good writer, and you can pick up a lot just seeing how he handles a sentence. In any event, a few days ago, he (she?) posted an extremely good article on distraction free writing. Here's the link:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/tips-and-tricks-for-distraction-free-writing.html

We've yet to spend time speaking much about process writing. As the first chapter of _Writing for College, Writing for Life_ notes, usually experts note five stages in process writing: gathering the information you need to write (pre-writing), getting your ideas out of your head and into the computer or onto paper (drafting), rewriting what you've drafted to say what you have to say in the best way possible (revision), editing for surface level errors (proofreading), and--after you've published your work--reviewing to see what worked in your writing and what didn't (review). The book doesn't speak about this last step, but it's an essential one.

To become a better writer, you have to have a bag of tricks or moves you can make which you *know* will work. It's as you review work you've given to an audience that you figure out what moves work in which rhetorical situations, and you add them to your rhetorical memory--read: your memory of moves you can make next time you need to write or speak in a genre.

Lifehack's post gives some truly useful tips you can use when drafting. Read the post. Take the time to *read* the comments. One of the essential steps in learning to think well--read: critical thinking, reading, and writing--is developing the habit of going to and using the community to gain insights you otherwise wouldn't have. Once you've read the article, add any useful information to your writing inventory.