For me, prewriting has always been a bit of an ironic term. After all, this preparation involves writing things down. I’ve rarely ever done it in the traditional sense, as I prefer to simply write a first draft. But despite its confusing etymology, the process is helpful for some writers. So, how and when is prewriting is useful for your writing?
“What the heck is Prewriting?”
In school, I was taught that prewriting must be done before starting the first draft of a writing assignment. I rarely did this, even when the prewriting itself was part of the grade. I’d just start writing the assignment, then go back and fix it later as I developed more ideas. I found that by skipping prewriting, I allowed myself to become fair at self-editing at an early age.
But, not everyone can write a whole paper down straight away. Even the most seasoned writers sitting down to write something, even if it isn’t an assignment, can find great value in old school prewriting. So, how do you start prewriting? Ask yourself several questions.
“What am I writing about?”
What is the topic or theme of what you’re writing? I usually figure this out within the first few sentences, or even right away when I title my work. But, one benefit of prewriting is that not only can you set your topic or theme in writing before you actually begin the actual draft; you can also ask yourself: “is this something I even care about?”
Most times I sat down to write in the past, I used to ask myself “will anyone care about what I’m writing?” If it’s an assignment, you typically have to entirely ignore this question. The trouble is, writing what you think people want to read often leads you to writing something you’re not as invested in.
Believe me, it’s usually fairly obvious to people when someone writes about something they actually care about or are moved by. For some, prewriting is a great way to really decide the direction you want to take with your writing. It doesn’t matter whether it’s for yourself or an assignment. After all, once you put something in writing, it can look a lot different than it did when the thoughts were still in your head.
Prewriting allows you to figure out what you actually care to write about before writing a whole piece and you’re unhappy with it. Now that I think about it, I could save myself some time by just doing this one part of prewriting. In a way, I already do something like that in my journals. That’s where I often come up with my topics and themes for writing essays. In fact, this very piece came from an idea I wrote in my journal.
Still, formalizing this part of the writing process as the first step in prewriting makes a lot of sense. If you think it will help your writing, by all means adopt this idea.
But, this is only the first part of prewriting. It’s only the first question you should ask, and there are three more to go.
“Why am I writing about this?”
If you’re writing something for an assignment, this question seems to have an obvious answer. But, that’s not what this second stage of prewriting actually means. This is when you decide on the purpose of your writing. In other words, why should what I’m writing exist, not for the assignment, but for the piece’s own sake?
The purpose of your writing should never be to get “a good grade” in a class or “get me paid” for a freelance assignment. By purpose, we want to know what this piece of writing is meant to accomplish, what job it has in Life. Some possible purposes for writing include:
- to explain
- to inform/instruct
- to describe
- to narrate
- to persuade
- to move
- to amuse/entertain
Your writing can be for multiple purposes. But, typically, you’re looking to focus on only one or two of these purposes – although you can do more. It’s possible to entertain while also being persuasive, for example. You can narrate and move someone through your words. You can mix and match any of these purposes, but just be sure to keep them in mind as you’re writing, and later editing.
If you do take up prewriting, it might be handy to keep this short list of purposes on hand. This way, you can choose the purposes that best fit what you’re trying to accomplish with your writing. Sometimes, an assignment has a strictly defined purpose. But, many assignments still allow enough room for you to add an additional purpose to your writing. Of course, if no exact purposes are assigned, go with however you feel you can best write about your topic or theme.
For example, through this piece on prewriting, I am aiming to inform while also hopefully explaining why I don’t usually do prewriting myself. I find that I tend to have a purpose to explain and inform a lot in my writing, although I aim to amuse, too. Keep in mind you don’t have to try and do all of these things in every piece you write. After all, you can’t have any one piece do everything, or it will get confusing and fragmented rather quickly.
“Who am I writing this for?”
Ah, yes, the ever important question for a writer: “Who is my audience?”
This is the point in the prewriting process where you may have to reconsider the purpose for your writing. Where is what you’re writing being posted? Even if it’s for your eyes only, you still inevitably have to think about this if you ever plan to publish it. After all, even if you’re writing for yourself, you have to remind yourself to be honest to your own thoughts and feelings.
The whole point of writing is for someone to read it, even if it’s yourself. More often than not, you’re trying to reach a specific audience. Your audience is, sadly, not just everybody. You must have a specific audience in mind whenever you write something; otherwise, you’ll give people the impression you’re just shouting into the void. I’ve made this mistake myself, and those pieces typically leave me feeling wanting.
Myself, I’ve tended to write for other authors, bloggers, and other writers, while also considering those in other creative fields. But this doesn’t mean my work is only meant for those specific people. It just means that I’m addressing those sorts of people intentionally. So, what does it mean to target a specific audience?
A target audience is composed of those who are most likely to get the most out of your writing. Picturing the sorts of people you envision reading your work gives you some loose guidelines and parameters for what those kinds of people prefer to read.
For example, if your target audience prefers typically prefers to read fiction, you may want to write a more amusing piece with a compelling narrative, rather than something straightforward for a lay audience. Based on who you feel your writing will speak to best, you can adjust your writing parameters accordingly.
“How am I going to write about this?”
Some prewriting guides have you choosing your piece’s genre before figuring out your audience. But I feel it’s imperative to know your audience before deciding how you want to write about it and what form it will take. After all, you haven’t actually started your actual writing yet, so you can go back still and adjust things as needed.
By genres, here’s what sort of things you could be writing:
- biography
- book
- essay
- letter
- narrative
- news story
- novel
- poem
- review
- report
- short story
Some themes are better written about through the narrative of a short story, fictional or not, for example. Other times, you may want to write something biographical and descriptive about someone who dealt with a certain topic or theme throughout his or her lifetime.
I’ve always preferred the essay, because it’s versatile. I’ve used poems, as well, to express certain ideas which I didn’t have the proper context, at least at the time, to put into prose. But, I’ve written for all of these genres, in one form or another.
When it comes to genres, unless it’s assigned, I always recommend writing to your strengths. You should dabble in every kind of writing that you can, just for the practice. But, work on your weaknesses as side projects, while still focusing on your strengths, to become a more complete writer.
The more you grow as a writer, the better all of your writing will be. That’s true even if your forays into other genres seem to fail miserably. The very act of putting together a piece you wouldn’t usually write makes new connections in your brain. After all, the best way to learn, even if you fail, is by doing.
You can learn a lot by writing towards your weaknesses, as long as it’s for your own education, because you could eventually find and develop new strengths you didn’t know you had. After all, writing is first and foremost a skill. The more you develop your skills in different sorts of writing, the more you can do, and the stronger your strengths become as your weaknesses become complements rather than shortcomings.
Prewriting is Done, So Now What?
Once you have decided on the topic or theme, the purpose, the audience, and the genre for what you’re writing, it’s planning time! Planning my writing, at least explicitly, is something I rarely do, although I do brainstorm from time to time when I feel compelled to do so.
However, depending on what you’re writing, there are many ways to collect your thoughts and ideas for prewriting. You can sit and think for hours, taking notes on whatever floats through your brain. Unfortunately, this method can leave you daydreaming and fantasizing, leading you to go write some poems or start some story that never go anywhere, rather than giving you something coherent to work with. Fortunately, there are other, more focused ways to get organized with your writing.
Research is actually pretty helpful. This is a part of prewriting that I actually have done a fair amount. Reading on the topic or theme you want to write about is helpful for many reasons. Not only does being well-read give you a ton of ideas to start from, but you also know what’s already out there. It also helps you to be writing on topics that you’d want to learn about anyway, regardless of writing about them.
You can also interview someone. This is easier than you’d think. People love to talk. If you ask someone who you consider an expert on a subject, and you have a few good questions you’re looking to answer, you’ll likely get a positive response!
In fact, an interview itself makes for some good writing, in addition to what you’re already writing! Plus, interviewing is an awesome skill to develop. But, the greatest benefit of an interview is that you can get an expert source, which additionally serves as social proof and credibility for your work.
Of course, you can also discuss your topic or theme with friends and family. You may get some ideas that you don’t expect. Never underestimate the people you have right in front of you! Even if you don’t get any new ideas, you may come to understand what it is people generally don’t know about your topic, which in itself is an idea.
However you pull your ideas together, you’ll probably end up with more ideas than you need for the writing project you started with. As you find as a writer, having too many ideas is actually a good thing, because you’ll have other things to write about later!
“Pull it all together now!”
The end of prewriting is now upon us! Now you have to organize your notes and put some sense into them. This is where some people engage in the dreaded outline or do some fancy flow chart or spreadsheet or whatever other crap you want to throw in Microsoft Excel (Or OpenOffice, Google Sheets, or Apple Numbers.)
My strategy is to pick a few good ideas and develop them in a way that makes sense as an essay. Most of the time, I do all this organization in my head. Then again, especially with assignments, I will put headings and sections in a document first before the writing gears really start cranking. It’s not an outline, per se, but it serves a similar purpose.
Writing an outline is perfectly OK and it’s very useful for many writers I know. But, my own writing tends to be a bit spontaneous, so outlines frustrate me and will feel like wasted effort. Still, I’ve seen flow charts and tables work wonders for many popular writers. How ever you best get organized in writing, go for it!
Now you’re ready to start writing! Funny enough, you may have done more writing in the prewriting than you’ll probably actually do in the actual drafting. But, hey, it’s more writing, and who doesn’t want to do more of that?
One area where prewriting definitely makes a difference is in editing. If you have a draft along with your prewriting notes, an editor has a lot more to work with in knowing what your original intent was. This is where you must remember that an outside editor isn’t in your head; he or she is going to likely have significantly different ideas when they read your words than you had in writing them.
How do you tackle prewriting? Or, are you like me and mostly just fly by the seat of your pants as a writer?
~ Amelia Desertsong
