Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Beethoven or Mozart—what kind of writer are you?

When I was in graduate school in the early eighties, I became fascinated by the idea of “writing process,” which is the approach you take toward your writing.

In a writing theory class I read a paper by a professor of rhetoric, Lillian Bridwell (now Bridwell-Bowles), who posited that there are two types of writers: Beethovian and Mozartean.

Ludwig von Beethoven                                              Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

beethoven_large                                W_a_mozart

The Beethovians, like Beethoven himself, write very rough drafts and spend a lot of time revising. The Mozarteans produce a nearly perfect first draft the first time they write—similar to the way the great composer worked. The theory is that the Mozarteans are PLANNERS, who do most of their revising in their heads before they put anything on paper. The Beethovians need to go through all those planning steps on paper—writing as they go to DISCOVER what they have.

Anyone who has read my posts on my own writing process (e.g., Thurber’s Mud) will see that I am a Beethovian writer. A good friend of mine, a very successful children’s novelist, is the opposite: a nearly pure Mozartean. He doesn’t even revise his manuscripts—just checks them for typos.

These writing types lie on a spectrum, of course: Nobody is 100% either type. Some current theorists think your type may be inborn, and that it is apparently indicative of other cognitive processes. When I began work on the third novel in the Pandora’s series, I thought I’d be able to do it in a linear fashion, especially since I already had around 100 pages written.

Nope. Not a chance. The deeper I get into the novel, the more I think of things that should go earlier—or later—and things that I need to research. As I explained in last week’s post I’m already doing major edits on the electronic version, and the small tablet I was using for notes has evolved into three separate tablets, each filled with scribbles and post-its.

Bridwell’s early research showed that it is more difficult for a Beethovian to write on a computer than for a Mozartean. This is because we Beethovians need to take our time, and also take space, spreading things out to look at the work holistically.

Neither writing process is right, or better than the other. They both just are. Which are you? I will probably have more to say on this topic in future posts.

12 comments:

  1. Writing papers in college I was almost purely Mozartean. In fact, actually writing the paper was tedium, because I already knew what I was going to say -- fully-formed. Walking across campus distilling ideas and connecting them was the fun part. Working on poems was almost the opposite. Endless building and revising and polishing from an instigating phrase or line.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was quite certain you would see yourself as a Mozartean. Dunno about the poetry, though....

      Delete
    2. Mozart all the way!

      Delete
    3. Then you are destined for great things.

      Delete
  2. Pretty amazing. I love Mozart so much, that I hoped I would be a Mozart, but I'm definitely Beethoven when it comes to creative approach. Even down to the easier to write on paper where I can see the whole thing at once. (That may apply to reading print vs. electronic, as well).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I kind of suspected you were a Beethoven, just from what I know about what you went through to write the Tahoma book. I think you're right about reading print vs. electronic, too; I have taught myself to read (and edit) on the screen, but even after all these years it just isn't the same! (Or as good.)

      Delete
  3. Mozart! but I try to be more like Beethoven. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting! As I mentioned in the post, I was hoping to write this novel as a Mozartean... it lasted about a page. Just can't do that. Just have to be messy old Beethovian me.

      Delete
  4. I'm Beethovian , at least for the first half of my projects. However, I've discovered that I can't even think about writing the back half until I've perfected the front. By the time I'm happy with the way the story opens, I've thought about the back so much that it basically writes itself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's interesting, Jess. I love that everyone has a somewhat different method, but we all seem to know what our BASIC writing process is.

      Delete
  5. That is extremely interesting. Definitely a Beethovian here. A couple of days ago, I sat looking at my two computer screens at work, lol, deciding that I needed two screens at home, too, to, you know, spread things out so I could see them as I worked. And dang, now I read this--explains so much!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know exactly what you mean! It's sad, but there's probably not enough physical space on anyone's desk for the number of screens a true Beethovian writer would need.

      Delete