Pre-writing, and Other Bad Advice

To be brutally honest, all the pre-writing advice I've ever been given in school has proven hopelessly confining, rigid, and a fantastic way to dry up every last bit of personality and creative potential in the most systematic and "practical" of ways. Even the idea of dividing the writing process into separate stages seems absurd to me. "Okay class, I think fifteen minutes of brainstorming is all we have time for today. Why don't we move on to the next step where you squeeze all your thoughts and imagination into this bulleted outline. And remember, good essays fit into five paragraphs!" Who are the geniuses coming up with these rules and techniques for writers?

End rant.

This is not to say that the organization of thoughts is not a vital step, but almost every single teacher that's insisted on brain mapping, thought bubbles, or any other technique has also had a devout, and religious relationship with the five paragraph essay, formulaic outlines, or any of their flat, box-nosed cousins. And my writing never improves, I only hold it to a pre-determined standard of greatness -- it's never worked for me.

My "pre-writing," if I should really call it that, is more like a shotgun burst barreling into my head that splatters my thought process onto a piece of paper, napkin, notepad -- whatever happens to be around at the time. Disregarding structure, I just quickly jot down every single important thought, tidbit, concept, whatever, that comes to mind, or that I think I may want to include in my writing. The process may start after a certain intense, or revelatory thing that's happened to me. But more often than not, I'll just  be thinking, thinking, doing more thinking, thinking about nothing at all -- then it hits me and I need to record it before it escapes. My muse has always been a violent, hammer-wielding bitch who only arrives via freight train at the exact hour I'm in the middle of something, and I deal with her accordingly. That's the pre-writing that works best for me.

And just in general, the only writing advice I've ever returned to time and time again, regardless of what "stage" of the writing process I am in, has been boiled down into one nicely refined word: "Write." That's all there is to it, just write...something.