After reading William Stafford's essay "A Way of Writing," I saw some current elements of my writing style in his, while I saw others I would like to practice. Stafford's open, carefree style is refreshing and leaves plenty of room for the imagination to go wild and see what develops. It is under these circumstances, in my opinion, that the most creative ideas spring to life. Attempting to write for a particular person or group of people leads to narrow thought and, in my experience, many a pulled hair. .
Much like Stafford, I enjoy a quiet environment in which to write. The quiet allows my mind to wonder down a million different roads of possibility until I find the idea or ideas that stand out. Here Stafford and I differ a bit in that I usually know what I am going to write about and have already formulated general ideas to get me started. I have never had a strong urge to just sit down and write the first thing that comes to me, and I feel a general idea is necessary in order to write the first sentence.
Stafford's ideals on following other's "standards" are very close to mine, however. When I write I have no cares as to the implications of my words or how others will judge them. They are, after all, my words and how I "paint the picture." I will leave the judging of others, and myself, for later. .
At first, his views on the idea of "skill" in writing baffled me. Originally I believed he was saying that there was no skill involved in writing and that a writer simply throws a bunch of words on a piece of paper and eventually makes a good story. His statement that writers rely on "stray impulses that will, with trust, find occasional patterns that are satisfying" backed, in my mind, the original thought. However, upon re-reading the essay I find that Stafford was not saying there is no skill involved in writing. Rather, he was saying that certain areas of the writing process, such as the period in which one thinks about what to write and goes through a process of discovery, can not be labeled as skill.
