Making It: Writing as a Craft

For a couple of seasons now, I’ve enjoyed a TV show called “Making It” where contestants compete to create imaginative projects that are evaluated by “real world” craftspeople. We see the individual “makers” in their moments of reflection, worry, self-doubt, humility, and gratitude. To a person, these creators each explain how they rely on family members, mentors, and past experiences to expertly envision and create their projects despite the surprise directives, challenges, and time limits for each episode. What we barely see, however, is the ocean of “support craftsmen” who usually wield the circular saw or help with wiring or painting, not to mention those who edit the frames, write the hosts’ witty dialogue, run the cameras, or purchase and make available all the crafting supplies.

What this does is make each “maker,” awfully creative in their own right, seem unstoppable. This certainly serves to bolster our admiration for their abilities as well as how they interact with one another, but it also is simply unrealistic. Even these gifted contestants – professionals, if you will – are not able to work magic independently … at least not in the scope of the time they’re allotted.

So it is with this background that I appreciate and relate to the idea of writing as not just a craft (noun), but as a process (verb) that can be learned and reshaped and improved along the way.

In Chapter 3 of Joli Jensen’s Write No Matter What, she explains the act of writing in terms of craftsmanship: an honest process that expects us to “focus…on what we don’t yet know” to harness a set of skills and write more effectively. Instead of understanding writing as a reflection of our worth, then, it serves as a process whereby we work towards perfection (and aren’t expected to produce it immediately or continually).

I like the idea of “working towards” not just the short-term goal, but the long-term skill, and I really like the promise of learning more about myself (or as Mills says, “form [my] own self”) as I learn more about this craft. With the focus on “performing the work” or the process itself, the burden is off my personality and shifted to the content to share. As I am just beginning to work through topics that may prove relevant for further research (and writing), these are encouraging words.

That said, my favorite quote arrived late in the chapter: a one-sentence challenge that, instead of absolving me from personal responsibility in this process, places a to-do list squarely in my hands:

“Patiently secure the time, space, and energy your work requires.” To do this work well, certain conditions must be met. I must give myself the chance to succeed by making my workspace, in a word, productive. I must work on my own attitude to be patient, not just with myself, but with those around me. I must not needlessly procrastinate or manufacture time constraints that place undue stress on the process. I need to be well-rested and up to the challenge. To participate in the challenge of academic writing, I must prepare myself to be successful. With these conditions met, my hope is that I, too, will be ready to recognize my support system and embrace the “craftsman attitude.”

LINKS:

Trailer to Season 1 – “Making It” (2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBdoJjDA1cs

Rubella, Dr. “Birthing a Degree and a Baby… How My Identity Impacts My Life Experiences in Similar Ways.” Tenure, She Wrote, 20 Nov. 2018, https://tenureshewrote.wordpress.com/.

I am further encouraged by advice in the Dr_Rubella post that serves as a potent reminder to embrace essential mentors and friendships through the process of working towards a Ph.D. While there is much we are required to do on our own, there is much to be gained by leaning on a support system.