A Reflection on Klinkenborg's Book
- Mark Joseph Aduana
- Oct 3, 2021
- 3 min read
I'm confused.
These past few days I've been reading Verlyn Klinkenborg's Several short sentences about writing. In it, I've read passages against freewriting - the pouring of thoughts on paper without stopping.
Verlyn argues that we should create first the sentence in our mind and explore other versions of it before putting pen to paper. What I've learned from other authors is the complete opposite: write without stopping, write without thinking, write and write and just keep your hands moving. It's how I've written everything I've written so far.
To say that it's the wrong way to write baffles me. To say that what I've learned from my heroes is a mistake is hard to accept. Verlyn must have a solid argument to support his claim.
I would accept it if he's writing for a specific audience. But he's not. He's addressing everyone whose work involves writing a sentence. He said that genre, purpose, shape, and structure are just ways of "shelving books." It's like saying that his advice transcends any form of writing.
Verlyn calls the stream of consciousness on paper "volunteer sentences." For him, writing a sentence without considering other alternatives is thoughtless writing. And we should avoid it.
Here are some of Verlyn's words (with some of my thoughts):
"Volunteer sentences occur because you're not considering the actual sentence you're making. You're looking past it toward your meaning somewhere down the road, or toward the intent of the whole piece."
I like this. It's like mindful writing. We should not rush towards writing the next sentence. Instead, we should savor the moment, we should stay as present as we could and pay attention to the sentence we're making - as if it's the only thing that matters.
But then, he writes...
"You may think a volunteer sentence is an inspired one simply because it volunteers. This is one reason to abandon the idea of inspiration. All the idea of inspiration will do is to stop you from revising a volunteer sentence."
Sometimes I write not to come up with polished prose but to discover what I'm trying to say. To abandon streams of consciousness means that you already know what you should write about. That's why while I was reading the book, I said to myself, "Maybe Verlyn writes for a specific audience, not for everyone." But as I've said he's writing for anyone who writes a sentence - no matter what the genre is.
Isn't revising as you write a disruption to the creative process? Isn't it a form of perfectionism? Isn't it contrary to writing shitty, crappy first drafts?
"The writer's job isn't accepting sentences. The job is making them, word by word."
Revising is how we polish our sentences, right? It's in this stage that we become conscious of the choices we're going to make - kill what's not useful and refine what's left. So why not let the creative juice flowing before dissecting each sentence?
It pains me to say this but he's not giving enough reason to support his claim. If you read the book, you'll notice that he jumps from one idea to another without giving enough context. He doesn't help the reader so the reader better understands why he said what he had just said.
He fancies revising while writing. He suggests that we should revise while we write so that after we've written a draft, after we read what we've written, we know the choices we've made for every sentence.
I wanted to find a stronger reason why we should revise while we write. I wanted to believe him, but I couldn't find solid support for why I should. I wonder why some of the writers I look up to treat his book like a bible.
Am I too amateur for the book?
I hope I am. I hope I'm wrong. But for now, I'll stand with what I believe. I'll stand with what works for me. I'll stand with freewriting.
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