can then understand the timing rules for effective writing since these are based
on these fundamental truths.
Fundamental Truths
327
Time is a writer’s best friend and worst enemy. This maxim not only describes
a great wisdom, it also reveals several fundamental truths which give rise to the
rules for effective reading and writing.
Time as a Friend: Lay On and Lay Off
Time is a friend because we build
up our understanding in layers. Each layer
has two components, a lay on and a lay off. This means that it is best to work
in stages, having time off between each stage. Periods of work (lay on) need to
be followed by periods away (lay off).
The lay on involves the effort in actually writing. This can range in its
difficulty. At one extreme it may be an easy flow as the words just fall off the
pen. At the other extreme it may be difficult. There can be a thrashing about, a
scratching of the head and a gnashing of teeth over ideas that will not submit
to fluent verbal formulation or fall into place in a neatly structured text. To
paraphrase Justice Holmes, the writer undergoes a hard day’s impact.
328
Hammering away at a task such as writing has some advantages because it
generates energy and intensity. It will be fruitful as long as the ideas keep
flowing. However, when a writer faces an impasse in their thoughts, it has its
limitations because the writer often “keeps going down the same path, again
and again”.
329
They become beset with tunnel vision. They are not creating but
are at best “just tweaking” and making incremental changes at best”.
330
What is needed is to break this pattern of thinking that is no longer productive.
And even where writing is going smoothly, it is valuable to freshen up.
Fortunately all of this can happen in the lay off stage. This involves taking a
break. There is scientific evidence that the best refurbishment happens when
the lay off period involves sleep (in accord with the proverbial wisdom that the
___________________
327
Dr Samuel Johnson
328
Justice Holmes, cited in Kitto (1992) p 796
329
Leslie Berlin “Want to be more productive? Sleep on it” (2008) New York
Times
Sunday 5 October 2008, quoting Mark Holmes, an art director at Pixar
Animation Studios.
330
Leslie Berlin “Want to be more productive? Sleep on it” (2008) New York
Times
Sunday 5 October 2008, quoting Mark Holmes, an art director at Pixar
Animation Studios.
 |
 |
 |