Clients sometimes tell us that they are “not writers”. What they usually mean is that they’re not looking for suggestion on how to take their writing to the next level—they just need this text to get polished and to get done.
This common (and valid) attitude has gotten us thinking about what it means to be a writer. So this week we’ll nerd out about this question.
The Drafting Continuum
We think that whether someone identifies as a writer speaks to the earliest phase of the drafting continuum. A quick reminder: draft -1 is pre-writing, where your goal as a writer is just to get the juices flowing. At this stage you don’t even have to produce written text. Draft 0 is the stage where you’re producing text for yourself, not some imagined audience. Draft 1 is writing intended for someone else—a real or imagined audience. Every draft beyond the first gets scrutinized by increasingly stringent external standards.
Identifying as a writer (or not) represents different attitudes to draft -2—a stage that’s even more formless and nebulous than draft -1. (We recognize we’re stretching the definition of “draft” here, but bear with us. We think we’re going somewhere.)
Spontaneity and Draft -2
So, what’s draft -2? How can we have a stage even more upstream of writing than draft -1?
Draft -1 is all about taking goals out of the picture. In draft -1 we approach writing with an attitude of trust towards our unconscious mind and what emerges from there. But we all know that our unconscious mind is unreliable. For every writing idea that pops into consciousness seemingly from nowhere, there are probably multiple times when the unconscious just spins its wheels in familiar, boring patterns. Unconscious processes are complicated and contextual.
Whether the playfulness of draft -1 “works” depends on deep-seated habits of feelings, knowledge, and attention. Clearly, some people are full of ideas, insights, intuitions, and opinions, whereas others are more sedate on that front—at least outwardly. (The same person can be very different at different times and in different contexts.) We think that while all people contain books within themselves, the execution of those inner books ranges from easy to near-impossible.
The Uses of Draft -2
We think that “working” on draft -2 means accessing that unconscious place where ideas come from. This is psychologically complicated. Even draft -1 is outside of immediate conscious control. Draft -2 is even more so. “Working” on draft -2 is more like living life and waiting for inspiration to strike. Being on a walk, or doing something that allows ideas to percolate naturally is probably the closest model we have to that sort of work.
Draft -2 is, in some sense, the rest of life. It’s those spontaneous little moments that don’t lead anywhere but perhaps plant some seeds that may sprout much later in unexpected places. It’s conversations and sights and sounds that slowly, imperceptibly shape who we are. In an important sense, we “do” draft -2 when we seek our inspiration and joy in our lives. Draft -2 is the ground from which the “work” of draft -1 grows.
Writers and Non-Writers
When people talk about being or not being writers, we think they’re talking about their experience of draft -2. Is the slow percolation of ideas joyful or kind of annoying? It’s a question of values and priorities.
Most writers will agree writing is a joyful activity on some level. We think this is at least partly because writing is where some of the most meaningful little experiences we’ve gathered in life find their home—at least for writers. Non-writers find other outlets for this slowly accumulating joy. And people should absolutely play to their strengths, and we must all acknowledge that creation takes on many valid non-verbal forms.
The Existential Pleasures of Creativity
Here we run up against a basic mystery of life: why do we enjoy the extremely subtle pleasures of creativity? We have no special insight.
We do, however, have some insight into the writing process. We think that draft -2 is the logical conclusion of tracing the source of writing. We don’t think we can go any deeper into the formless, unpolished, spontaneous, and mysterious. What we do know is that every step that follows draft -2 amounts to getting a bit more structured and/or polished. With draft -1 you actively give yourself some space and time to explore these vague, formless intimations you’ve gathered. With draft 0, you’re constraining yourself further to putting words on a page. (Most people would say that writing begins here.) And with draft 1, you’re putting in some imagined or real external constraints on what you’ve produced. And so on.
As editors, we don’t really work with material that precedes draft 1. But that doesn’t stop us from being curious. The more we can imagine the lives of our clients, the more we can help.