As you do writing practice, it’s essential to understand the difference between private writing and public writing.
Private writing is writing that no one else will see; it is writing you do for yourself alone. The most familiar kind of private writing is a personal journal.
Public writing is the kind of writing most people mean when they talk about writing: it’s writing designed to transfer content from the mind of the writer to the minds of readers. Novels, memos, academic papers, articles in the newspaper, poems—all these and more are forms of public writing.
The main difference between private and public writing is work. Private writing is not work: when we read over what we have written, we will understand it, because we already know what we are trying to say; we don’t have to do the work of communication. But other people do not have that “inside knowledge,” and so, if we want to make ourselves clear to them, we must work hard to do that. And to do that work, as I’ve said, we need skills. (If you want to review these skills, you’ll find them in What These Lessons Offer.)
If all you want to do is private writing, you now have the basic tool you need—freewriting—to do so. Regular freewriting practice, with a focus on yourself, can help you learn about yourself and gain insight into your experiences. If that’s the kind of writing you choose, then you may want to take a look at some of the many books (such as those by Natalie Goldberg and Julia Cameron) which provide tips on private writing.
The recent popularity of such books, along with trends in the teaching of creative writing, the emergence of blogging, and a general blurring of boundaries between private and public life in our culture, have made many people feel that ALL writing must be an exploration of self. This is absolutely NOT true.
If you want to write pieces for others to read, you do not need to make your own experiences (or “story,” as many teachers call it) the subject of your writing. Writing exclusively about yourself is a form of narcissism, a way of getting others to pay attention to you. But professional writers, like professional athletes, don’t put in years of skills-building just to call attention to the details of their daily lives or their past traumas. They do it because they want to spend their time engaged in a certain kind of work, work in which they can give something to others.
You do not need to use writing to “express yourself”; you can use it to communicate. But if you’re going to do that, then you need to have something worth communicating. And for that, you need content skills.
Having said all of this, I also want to emphasize that private writing can be a good learning tool, to be used on the path towards mastering public writing.
For some people, time spent doing private writing is a necessary first step, even though eventually they want to produce writing for others to read. If you have been forced to do a lot of writing (especially for critical readers, such as professors or bosses) you may find it a welcome relief to write for a while without any readers in mind.
And it’s also true, as I’ve said before, that all writing practice can remain private (unless, or until, you decide to share it), even when you are practicing the skills of public writing. This apparent paradox will become clear as you move through the lessons that follow.
Suggested next lesson: A Writer’s Powers
© 2010. All Rights Reserved. Barbara Baig