My Damned Writing Process
a vicious cycle that is stuck at step three

I tried my hand at creative writing again. I've only written a two page prologue so far. I've emailed it to my sister, who recommended that I should rework it because she got confused. Ah... the writing process...

Should I define what English teachers call "the writing process"? It's a step-by-step scaffolding method in which we teach to students to try to understand their own writing style and process. It goes something like this:

A) Pre-writing: students jot down ideas. They can outline them with the traditional Roman numerals, they make bubble clusters, they can draw diagrams, etc... It's like making a layout of all their ideas. If they have a ton of ideas, this is where they can see what is relevant, what should they focus on, and where their ideas are going.
B) Rough draft: students write a rough draft. This is where they are to actually write in words, in a structured format, no bubble clusters or diagrams. This is where they develop their ideas into a focused paper.
C) Editing/Revision: students share their work to edit. This can be with the teacher, who reads the rough draft and puts comments on it; or it can be a peer-edit with their own friends or classmates who also put comments on it. Then the student can revise their work.
D) Publishing: this is the final draft where the student turns in their work. Publishing doesn't necessarily mean that it gets published; it just means that it's a final draft. In some cases, like creative writing, publishing can mean "does it appear publishable?" With Internet activities, could the piece that the student wrote be put on a website? If it was a writing project, is the paper in a publishable format, such as in a writing portfolio; does it have a writing cover?

Before I even taught, this was already my writing process back in sixth grade when I first started writing silly stories. When I saw this method in a teaching course from college, it was like putting a name to a face. I already knew it, I just needed to put it in words. I still have short stories and ideas from eighth grade that are either at step one or at step three. These stories haunt me because I never finished them.

With my current story, I'm stuck at level three. I'm either a perfectionist, or I'm just never satisified at what I write. I've gone through a dozen revisions with this story already. The prologue alone has gone through several drafts and revisions. Then there's the other questions that come into play: first person narrative or third? Third person limited narrative or omniscient? Female narrator or male narrator? Was this character useless? Should I change that character's name? Was this scene needed at all? Did the mood and tone come out right?

I'm looking at my prologue, and I like it. Sure, there are a few loopholes that my sister noticed and got a bit confused. If I revise this prologue, I hope I can stick with this draft that it can move on to step four, at least. Back to the drawing--er, writing board.