Independent Seminar Blog Week Seven – Why Is Writing So Hard?

https://lostandfounders.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/writing-workshop11-tutoring-on-sunday/

 

That is me this week.

I’m hating my independent project right now, honestly.

I apologize for complaining but the struggle is real.

I’ve been an okay writer in the past. But this special task, writing a business financial plan, has been more than a crucible for me over the past weeks.

Here is how:

When I wrote each section of my business plan, I would start without knowing where I was going to. And then I would jog down a page or a paragraph; and I would come up with a fresh idea while writing. So I then purged my previous work and ended up sticking with the new idea. In a section, such process could happen two or three times and it wasted a gigantic amount of time because a two-page document saved could be the result of five pages deleted.

Very inefficient, right?

So I started working on solving this problem.

I had a conversation with Teacher Deb last week, and I told her my situation. She suggested, as many of you would, using an outline because it is a method to set the structure and avoid all major changes in the writing. This approach works in some writings like essay writing, but not as well in a business plan. Because I know before writing an essay what my thesis is and what evidence I use, outlining an essay is like mapping a path knowing the starting point and the ending place, as well as major stations along the path: it is easy to come up with an infallible essay outline. But outlining a business plan is not as simple. I do have a big picture of each section in my business plan, but it is too obscure. There are too many small pieces that require research and calculation, so it is barely possible for me to have a clear vision of my path. For example, I need to figure out on which college campus I’m building my fitness center. It cannot be a campus with a great gym because why would people pay to work out at my fitness center if there is already a satisfying place to work out? It cannot be a small college because it costs a lot to open a gym and with a small student population where is the profit going to come from? And it better not be a rural campus because if all I have are the college residents then I’m giving up other citizens as my customers. So the college has to be a relatively urban, populated one without a good fitness center.

Pause, how do I figure that out?

I cannot search it up and have an answer right away. Google can tell me which college has the most amazing fitness center, but it doesn’t have a list of worst ones. So I had to circumvent the problem by looking at which college struggles athletically overall, and I will need to analyze how if this approach works… Eventually, I’m stuck, scratching my head and heaving a sigh, not knowing what to do.

 

http://scriptshadow.net/screenwriting-article-the-struggle-of-trying-to-make-it-as-a-screenwriter/

 

That scenario is just one example of me over the past two weeks.

“That is the process of researching.” Says Teacher Deb. She tells me that because I’m unfamiliar with writing a business plan and because the point of this project is to have me fumble along my way, so all the feelings I have are normal and I will learn from these feelings and evolve into better writers.

Hope so. At least, I’m getting less and less upset each time writing tortures me. I guess at least I’m getting used to the struggle before I emotionally give up.

I’m kind of sorry that this post is more passive, because I’m in the middle of a swamp, trying to drag myself out. I still don’t have a concrete solution to my problem. I hope I can come back here next week and tell you how I make it through. But as for now, I will go back there and start working again, and we will see how it goes.