Process vs. Product
or: Yet another way to get rid of writer’s block
This focus on sitting down and just writing, doing the best I can do with what I know now, can be seen as a switch from product to process. I don’t start by wondering about which section I’ll get done or principle I will refine. I start by breaking out the laptop and sitting down. And no matter what I actually do with the document—editing, free-writing, making diagrams, tracking down reference—progress has been made. And I know progress will be made tomorrow. So I will end up with a product although I never have to think about what that will be.
I think this is an advantage. Surely sometimes I need to think about the product I’m making. But it comes down much more to act of writing itself than the plan. And it stops me from tripping up over not knowing what the final product will be, or if this outline is really going to work in the end, or if this paragraph is necessary. If I have doubts about one area, work on another. If it ends up cut—oh well. It all works out in the end.
Jumping off the cliff before it’s in sight, in Julie Cameron’s terms. That’s what undue focus on product results in.
Very related to “just do the next thing” but I needed an extra jolt to get out of product-fixation.