Writing: Systematic or Spontaneous?

Writing: Systematic Or Spontaneous?
By Liam Bailey.


In this essay I will cover two writing methods, spontaneous, and systematic writing.  For each method I will discuss my own experiences and opinions of using said method, and it’s suitable applications.  Before stirring it up by not having a Joe-ordinary conclusion, instead describing in detail my favoured method, which incorporates both methods in equal importance so it can be applied to any form of writing, fiction or non-fiction.
Ah, spontaneous writing my favoured method well, the method I always used no matter what I was writing, because it always just seemed to flow naturally, my work was of a high-standard, and my secondary English teacher said I had a real talent for writing, I never saw the point in learning how to plan effectively, and found myself switching off in that part of lessons, I knew best.  Of course I didn’t know best, the longest piece I wrote in secondary school English would have been no more than 3000 words, and I of course wrote it spontaneously but also continuously till I finished the piece, which in my opinion gave me an unsurpassable level of continuance throughout the piece, but in hindsight if I had used the systematic method of planning, I could have covered more of the topic using the same amount of words.  After school, when attempting my first novel I rapidly learned this wasn’t the only downside of spontaneous writing.  I started with the first thing that came into my head which was:  “The knife pressed harder against my throat, I see my wife Karen lying there in a pool of blood running from a gaping slice in her neck, which could almost be a bloody smile.” Not a bad start and I was able to continue for 70 000 words, but I left it for a couple of weeks and when I came back and read through it I found that the gaping hole in Karen’s throat wasn’t alone, there were many holes in my story, unfortunately mostly in plot continuance, well the lack of it.  I hadn’t checked it before, and now I couldn’t remember what my train of thought had been when I started, which ultimately lead to me to scrap the whole novel.
Now systematic writing, my new best friend whenever I write fiction, as fiction tends to be my longest work.  After the “A story to die for” crime novel fiasco I told you about above, I was determined never to get it so wrong again and decided from now on to plan any piece of writing longer than 1000 words.  However, I didn’t know anything about different methods back then, I didn’t know I had been using spontaneous writing in the past and I certainly didn’t know the technique of systematic writing, but I knew I had to do some kind of planning to avoid the dreaded plot-holes.  I came up with my own method, which I didn’t know at the time would become something close to systematic writing.  I jotted down the basic idea for my story on one page in my pad, then titled one page “beginning,” one “middle,” and one “end,” before brainstorming what would happen in each section, giving me an easy outline to plan any twists in the plot, and an idea of the effect my story would have on the reader.  I started writing but quickly found the weakness of my new method when writing about characters, I couldn’t remember every detail about every character, which not only would have resulted in more dreaded plot-holes, but also made it impossible to personalise my characters to the reader, by always giving them the same personality traits, i.e. they act the same way, same level of tolerance/patience, the same kind of things constantly annoy them, and so on which really bring a story to life in the readers mind.  So, I started writing a brief description of all my stories intended characters before commencing work, and this really improved my writing, but I was still on a learning curve, and quickly discovered another weakness when writing about my characters surroundings, i.e I had to remember my previous train of thought in order to create either the same, or intended atmosphere, which could in some cases be done by flicking back but not always, so I learned to always make a note of the setting for my stories.  Now by planning beginning, middle, and end before every story, I was actually going further than necessary in the systematic method, in which you just jot down a brief outline of your intended plot, ten lines or so, and by pre-planning my characters and setting I was almost using the systematic technique without even knowing it, almost because I was one step short.  The last step, synopsis, which is similar to the plot in step 1 but much more detailed, you write in omniscient point of view, which is a third person who knows everything about the story and it’s characters including what they are thinking etc, covering everything in your story and this is most important, you leave nothing out and tell it in the order you intend it to happen.  Since I learned that (recently) and gained a bit of experience using the systematic method, I felt much more confident about writing longer pieces, not to mention the improved quality of my work.
The best things you can do to learn about writing are start writing then read and write as much as you can, whenever you can.  I learned my shorter version of the systematic method through experience and trying to improve my writing, which it did no-end, and when I recently was taught by this class the full systematic method my writing was even further improved.  Experience came into play again though, and based on my own experiences of writing I have adapted the systematic method to suit my own style.  By incorporating the spontaneous method in just the right amounts and places I have devised my own method of writing, which is ideal for me whatever type of writing I undertake.  The name of my method is:  Systematic writing, planned spontaneously.  I think I better explain, for any piece longer than a thousand words I carry out all steps of the systematic method, but in all steps except the actual writing of the story/essay I write spontaneously.  So, I write spontaneously when jotting my intended plot, I write down my intended characters and setting spontaneously and in one continuous go, and do the same for the final (synopsis) step, then write my story at my leisure, referring constantly to my plan, therefore ensuring no dreaded plot-holes.

The End