Exploratory Writing (with a sneak peek into my writing journal!)

The outline of the process of exploratory writing in the Allyn and Bacon Guide was actually very helpful to my own current writing. I've been brainstorming ideas for a seminar paper in a critical theory class, and at the time that I read this selection my notes looked something like this:

naomi klein/zapatistas
film (Benjamin + WoAitAoMR)
Wordsworth + psychology
(illegible) Copyright/twain
Fish + interpretive communities -
avant garde/electronic music? - Internet forums and stuff
zizek + marxism
auerbach + mimesis

Don't try to make sense of any of that; I can't either. The thing is, at the time I wrote this I felt like each of these ideas was brilliant. Each of them had at least an initial question or concept attached that I felt was worth exploring. However, I stopped working on it for several days and now I can't remember the shape any of my initial arguments were supposed to take. If I had free-written about each of these instead of taking haphazard notes, I would have at least retained the initial thoughts behind each one. Then, I could have chosen one or two to begin researching in earnest.

Luckily, I've since followed at least the initial stages of exploratory writing described here. What I feel is really being described is active waiting in a much stricter (and more active) sense. Instead of just jotting down ideas in between other activities, it is often better to follow those ideas for as long as it takes to get to some conclusion. Obviously, it is difficult to free write for "as long as it takes" if you are, say, on the bus or waiting for a phone call. But expanding into a more exploratory mode, when possible, can provide a link from active waiting into more substantial research.