What Do Writers Do?

(A longer version of this article originally appeared in Active Voice, the monthly newsletter of the San Francisco Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication.) What do you do when you “write”? This conundrum first came to me while editing a first draft manuscript on how to break through writing blocks. When stuck, so that you can’t write, I wondered, what are you not doing? Maybe analogies help. Does a writer perform, as in a school play? Do you learn your lines? Say your little bit on cue? Hope the audience likes you? And take a bow? Does the writer tailor a suit designed by someone else? Do you lay a pattern over the raw material? Cut along the lines? Sew the pieces together? Make a few minor alterations to fit? Tell the customer in the three-way mirror...

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