My style of writing is a bane to college professors everywhere. I normally end up with lower grades because of it, but I don’t really mind. It’s the way I write and I like writing this way. See, my mind works a little different than some people. I write better than I speak. When talking, I forget words. For example, one day I had to look at my wife and say, “You know the word. It’s got pages and you read it.” “That’d be a book, dear.” “Right. Book.” However, when I’m typing, words flow out of me that I sometimes didn’t even know I knew. It’s funny, but I “overthink” when I speak, instead of when I write.

When I write, I just let the words flow and put down the ideas as fast as I possibly can. I don’t take many pauses and I don’t do much editing like people would say needs to be done. I fix spelling mistakes and such as I find them because I tend to type in a dyslexic manner, but otherwise I let the language stay natural. I also tend to put my thoughts in wherever they may show up. One example would be the quick dialogue I put in the middle of my explanation in the previous paragraph. Another would be (and this happens often with me sometimes) when I put things in parentheses right in the middle of my sentences. That last sentence was an example of this. Those are the “asides” that my brain may branch off to while I’m typing. I don’t think about it, I just put them there. I think it feels more “natural” to do so.

Sometimes I also put words in a visual manner to make the pauses and necessary inflections. For example, I could type, “That was incredible!” or, I could type “That was in-cred-i-ble!” There is emphasis on the different syllables in the word and the reader tends to read it that way with the dashes. I like to make the words look the way they sound in my head. My creative writing professors have always loved that style. Grammar professors, not so much.[1]

So, as an exercise, as you comment on this post, type exactly what you’re thinking. It makes it feel more like a conversation instead of a “formal typing experience” which sounds much less fun.

1. For example, that was not a complete sentence just then, but you got the point, and probably grinned just like I did when I thought it and typed it.[↩]