Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

The Role of Art and Science in Writing

There are those who rightly advocate a systems approach to writing. The popular “Snowflake” is one example of how writers can take advantage of this organizational tool.

I support any systematic technique a writer is comfortable with that will help organize and focus the wild and untamed forces of creation (Art) and turn them into something that can be controlled and appreciated.

Still, I have to emphasize that the art trumps science. There must first come that burst of creative insight before we try and make something out of nothing.

Regardless of how well you write you first have to have something to write about. Think for example about the story line in the Gift of the Magi. Was this a great love story line or what? The hero had a watch as a prized possession and the heroine a beautiful head of hair. He sells his watch to buy her a set of combs and she has her hair cut to buy him a watch chain. If that isn’t the essence of love I don’t know what is. A moron of a writer could have written a great story with that as a story line.

In the Exploratory Writing Workshop we begin by trying to coax the art of imagination out into the open where it can be snared in the web of our awareness and wrought into a literary creation that can be enjoyed and appreciated by readers.

To accomplish the “Coaxing,” part, the students write six vignettes. This is an unconstrained, free thought process that begins with character creation, moves on to character interaction, is fueled by wants needs and desires, faces a life changing event, struggles with crisis and emerges as someone transformed from who they were to begin with.

Once the artfulness of the story is chased into the open, then it is time for the science to step in and give organization and focus to the creative process we call literature. The point to keep in mind is that the science can’t gin up the story any more than an automobile can create itself. Once the six vignettes are completed the writer should know enough of the art to outline the story.