Dancing With the Madman
Bryan Garner’s recommendation of the Flowers Writing Paradigm would have significantly shortened my learning curve if I’d known about it. Maybe my recommendation now can serve you as Garner’s would have served me.
Dr. Betty S. Flowers, Garner reports, devised a shrewd way of dramatizing the process to minimize problems and maximize efficiency as well as effectiveness. The most important news here is that the process works. And not just for legal writing, but for all forms of writing.
The short description of Dr. Flowers’ process is that you allow the 4 aspects of your brain to support your work. The four aspects are: Madman, Architect, Carpenter, Judge. Each should be employed individually, without interference from the other, ideally in the order listed.
The Madman works through our creative imagination; he’s the idea man. I’ve been spending a lot of time with him lately as I riff through my excited new novel brainstorming.
The Architect develops our plan, the outline for writing the project as Aristotle demanded: a beginning, a middle, and an end. Eschew outlining at your peril was a lesson I eventually metabolized.
The Carpenter builds the piece, one word at a time, filling in the blanks with discretion, adding the architectural details. Clever words, twisted plots, emotional peaks and valleys all enhanced through finish carpentry.
And the Judge is our editor, proofreader, and technician. We need the judge. But he can be a buzz kill. Keeping him firmly locked in the closet until it’s safe to unleash him is essential to producing our best work.
After 30 years of writing millions of words in various forms, attempting to develop and honor my process, in one short essay Garner clearly defined the system I eventually discovered by my own trial and error.
You read it here in 30 seconds. Gotta love the internet, right?
