How do you compose?

Our discussion board comments about working from a script for the podcast got me to thinking about how we compose.  What do we need under our feet to begin writing?  and what habits make us efficient?

On one hand, we could think in terms of location and situation.  Several of the 19th C American writers (Hawthorne comes to mind) wrote standing up.  They mounted a desktop on the wall and created a mechanism that allowed it to be adjusted to various angles.  After seeing Hawthorne's in the 70s, I made one and used it for several years, through my BA and MA.  It's now lost to history.  Hemingway used to compose at a Royal typewriter perched on a dresser bookshelf in his bedroom/study.  Perhaps more significant for Hem was that the whole thing was on the outskirts of Havana, Cuba.

A slightly different approach to the writing situation is the writing ambience: quiet or music, coffee, alcohol, or something more illegal.  Many of my students think this approach is very important.  They must have music playing .... until they are forced to write while sitting on the floor in a hallway in Satterfield.

A variation that I indulge in is handwritten, typed or word-processed.  Who insists on typing any more?  Maybe some of us elders, but many of us have been using a computer for 30 years, that typing is probably reserved for envelopes ... if even then.

Sometimes, my choice is a matter of speed: can I type as fast as I can make notes?  Usually.

If we think about the podcast, there is another option that I don't think many of us use -- dictating to the computer.  Of course you could purchase one of the Dragon Naturally Speaking programs (that lie behind the iPhone's transcription tool)  -- but from then until you tell them to stop, you'll be bothered by monthly calls to upgrade to the next minor release at the special price of $99.  I'm not sure about newer Mac OSs, but since Win7, there has been a similar routine in the OS itself.  Activate it, train it (takes a little longer than Dragon) and you can tell the computer what to to and can compose using Word or a notepad.  If you submitted such an essay, it would be equivalent to podcasting without a script -- one time and you're done. But when I've tried dictating, I find that I have a lot of ideas, but the prose is so rough, I wind up polishing and moving things around.

To fudge a bit, sometimes our composing is not writing: it is organizing.  And for that, I usually draw on paper with a pencil or I use a concept mapping tool such as CMap or VUE.  I've laid out several assignments (especially the website) in CMap so I could see what I was doing.

And, finally, as I begin drafting, I often use Scrivener (available for PCs and Macs) so I can break the piece down into several sections, revise those sections and then pull it all together.  Yes, you could do the same thing with Word or a notepad, but sometimes convenience (all in one file -- or so it appears to the writer), safety (keeps versions and can backup/restore any of them), and flexibility (see ideas as cards on a corkboard, as an outline, or as tect) win out.  At under $60 for the Mac and under $40 for the PC (because it is a newer program with fewer features) it is a bargain if you want to think in terms of sections of your work.

Whatever it is, a favorite keyboard, a special room, a special piece of music, or a special program, we do well to honor our fetishes.  What do you want? vs. what do you need?