Week 12 StoryLab:

Flow of Ideas 

For my StoryLab, I returned to the Advice to Writers website. More specifically, I chose to read an article that I disagreed with, unlike my previous story labs. The article that I chose was, Never Look at a Reference Book While Doing a First Draft. 

The title is what caught my eye because it tells us to do the opposite of what I have been doing throughout this course. Not only in this course, but all other writing works that I have published often have an inspiration. No, I do not let it control my flow of writing, but it does help with generating a flow to expand on. If I were unable to use aids while writing, I know it would come out choppy and not at all how I intended. The article told me to not use a thesaurus, which is impossible for me to do. I always catch myself whenever I repeat a word a ton, and it is typically due to the word flowing best with my message. So, I often replace the word after much research within the thesaurus. 

Each piece of advice given, like do not correct spelling until later, goes against all that I believe in while writing, I understand there is a review period for a purpose, but if I do not correct what I know needs correcting when I see it, it disrupts the flow of ideas, which is the opposite of what the author of the article explained. Maybe I just write differently? 

I do not believe that there is a right or wrong way to go about creating a story or a piece of literature, so as long as your idea develops fully and clearly, the process does not matter. 

King, Stephen. “Never Look at a Reference Book While Doing a First Draft.” Advice to Writers , 4 Nov. 2018, www.advicetowriters.com/home/2018/11/4/never-look-at-a-reference-book-while-doing-a-first-draft.html.