Thinking and planning before crafting your writing is a part of the standard writing process you may have heard or applied in your own writing. But what if trying to reverse the writing process by writing down without spending too much time thinking? Writing before thinking is one of the compelling concepts Parami students acquired from the two-week Bard College Writing and Thinking Program held virtually this month. Throughout the workshop, participants explored various types of writing, reading, and translation work by well-known authors. 

The Bard College Writing & Thinking Program focuses on inspiring students to broaden their creative and analytical thinking skills. Students engaged in their writing process through various cutting-edge techniques and guided exercises that enhanced their writing, thinking, editing, brainstorming, and analyzing skills. This workshop is always a part of the Parami Leadership Program and is offered exclusively for program students. However, this year, Parami was able to share this opportunity with both modular and program students. 

Led by three well-experienced program leaders, Peter Wallace, Anca Roncea, and Raj Chakrapani from Bard College, the workshop included three sessions joined by 36 participants who had no prior writing experience and those with an immense passion for writing. The workshop covered various topics such as erasure poems, text exploration, timed writing, private/focused freewriting, loop writing, underlining text and writing out of it, re-writing a story in a wide range of genres, translation, experimental translation, and popcorn reading. 

During the program, participants spent the first few minutes writing down their thoughts and feelings through a private and focused freewriting exercise. This writing activity allowed students to write without stopping or thinking and worrying about mistakes and errors. Upon their completion, participants had composed various writings such as essays, short stories, poems, etc. They got to share their favorite piece of writings with workshop leaders and participants from all three sessions as celebratory of the completion of the seminar. 

Here are some of the captivating concepts and insightful writing tips shared by participants from the program that could be helpful in your writing.

"To write down what pops up and edit it later. I, for one, did not do this. It was really dreading to write as editing in your head is not the best way to write. I would spend a whole day and not get three sentences, so write down everything that pops up and edit. After all, you can't write without words." 

Helpful writing tips that help you get started.

• Write before you think: thinking is a critical process in writing. However, some people can get distracted easily by spending too much time overthinking and processing their thoughts and then writing nothing. Writing before you think helps you improve your ability to think outside the box and unleash your imagination to write anything. For example, you can take 5-10 minutes to write down your thoughts and feelings that pop up in your head. You could apply timed writing and free writing techniques. Time writing is to write something based on a topic/prompt within a certain amount of time, while freewriting is to write something down freely without pausing and thinking.
• Do not try to edit before writing it down: do not let trying to say something perfectly get in the way of saying anything at all. Perfecting is what re-writing is for. Whenever bombarded with thoughts and ideas, it is helpful to write down everything—take a break and then come back to organize and edit your work later.
• Do not be critical to your writing: the first draft is not always perfect. It may contain errors, inconsistencies, and irrelevant information. It is important not to judge your writing because it could be the factor that could discourage you from writing and hold you back from doing something you are passionate about. Sometimes, write down the words, even if you find it difficult to phrase the sentences.

The critical process of writing is to start getting started and putting words together, and these writing techniques can be applied in different ways such as creative writing, essays, etc. The Writing and Thinking Program has equipped participants with knowledge and skills to enrich their writing, think outside the box, and write creatively in various genres.