Elbow, Peter. "The Process of Writing -- Growing." Writing Without Teachers. London: Oxford University Press, 1973.

"Most people's relationship to the process of writing is one of helplessness ... People without education say, 'If only I had education I could write.' People with education say, 'If only I had talent I could write.' People with education and talent say, 'If only I had self-discipline I could write.' People with education, talent, and self-discipline -- and there are plent of them who can't write -- say, 'If only ... ' and don't know what to say next" (12).

So who are these people who are successful writers? Elbow says that most people find writing, especially its starting point, to be mysterious: "(We are) helpless before the process of writing because it obeys inscrutable laws. We are in its power. It is not in ours" (13).

Yet is writing that mysterious of a process. Elbow creates a metaphor that says, in essence, many who are able to do it can because they don't try too hard. This might be one of those lines between creative writing and composition: in creative writing, we are taught to "feel" our way through the writing; in composition, we analyze the process of writing.

Elbow believes "the idea of writing is backwards. That's why it causes so much trouble. Instead of a two-step transaction of meaning-into-language, think of writing as an organic, developmental process in which you start writing at the very beginning -- before you know your meaning at all -- and encourage your words gradually to change and evolve" (15). Writers should engage in prewriting and freewriting before even attempting a final product.

Elbow likens this process to "growing and cooking." In the growing process, "Consider this example. You believe X. You write out your belief or perception or argument that X is the case. By the time you have finished you see something you didn't see before: X is incorrect or you see you longer believe X. Now you keep writing about your perplexity and uncertainty. Then you begin to see Y. You start to write about Y. You finally see that Y is correct or you believe Y. And then finally you write out Y as fully as you can and you are satisfied with it" (22-23).

Growing, therefore, is thinking on the page, and prewriting about it, before attempting to draft a final work. The piece of paper is not sacred; it is a place to put down thoughts and to decide what you might keep, and what you might discard. "My main wholistic advice. Process. Write a lot and throw a lot away ... you're trying to get your material to do some of the steering instead of doing it all yourself" (31-32).

Only after you complete this process are you to worry about editing. "Editing means figuring out what you really mean to say, getting it clear in your head, getting it unified, getting it into an organized structure, and then getting it into the best words and throwing away the rest. It is crucial, but it is only the last step in the complete growth cycle" (38).