I enjoyed reading Goldberg’s Intro to Obsession.  I thought it was an interesting way to present ideas that seem to be more common sense in nature.  The quote on page three, “Learning to write is not a linear process.  There is no logical A-to-B-to-C way to become a good writer”, was a really well written thought, and it can be helpful when thinking about writing.  Too many people want there to be a process to writing, and they want it to be a difficult one.  But the fact that writing isn’t logical and doesn’t always make sense can be part of the problem for some people.  If your mind works better in a more linear A-to-B-to-C way, then writing will be extremely difficult.  But if the A-to-B-to-C way isn’t how your mind usually works, then writing will be more natural and easier to do.

The tips on page eight of Intro to Obsession are also good, and can come in handy when writing.  Keep your hand moving and don’t cross out, or self-edit as Goldberg called it, were the two that I thought were most important, and the two that I know I usually struggle with.  I’m constantly worried about whether or not I spelled a word right, if I capitalized, or if I used correct punctuation  (even over the course of typing this sentence I corrected myself at least five or six times).  And I know that that isn’t conducive to being able to get down as many ideas as possible. 

  I also have a problem with constantly keeping my hand moving.  I’ll get stuck in a sentence and spend five minutes worried about what one word I should use, instead of making sure to get something down and keep going.  It really is a problem because while I'm fretting about every little word, I'm missing what I'm thinking about in the moment and losing the opportunity to write that down, especially since my memory isn't the greatest (and to prove my point for the last paragraph, I just spent more time self-editing this paragraph than actually typing it).