Incubating Your Ideas

Once a teacher told me that my writing went through the most drastic change he'd ever seen from first draft to final draft. I knew what he was saying. My writing always seemed to start off as a cluttered mess and end up as a pretty good paper.

I didn't realize it at the time, but my papers improved after each draft because I was letting my work incubate in my head. Now I know that this is a method used by many writers. They put their initial thoughts down on paper, put the work aside completely, and then go back hours or days later. Somehow, the writing seems to organize itself during the "down time."

Although nobody really understands why this process works, I believe it has something to do with learning styles. Because I am a global thinker, I need to let thoughts simmer in my head for awhile before they start to make good sense. Maybe this process of incubation works best for certain types of thinkers. Who knows?

No matter how the process works inside our heads, the whole concept just reinforces the rule about starting early on your assignments. Another reason you shouldn't procrastinate!