Types of Writers

I read an article online a few weeks ago where the author discussed the types of writers that he had come across during his time. He organized writers into three broad categories: the Microwave Writer, the Crockpot Writer, and the Stir Fry Writer.

The Microwave Writer works well under pressure and produces writing material quickly, usually to meet some sort of fast approaching deadline. This writer might procrastinate and not get started on their writing until shortly before it needs to be finished, but once they do get started they can get in the zone quickly and crank out whatever is required of them.

The Crockpot Writer is the slow cooker. He may not write much on any given day, but he writes consistently for an extended period, slowly adding and editing as he goes along until he has the finished product. The Crockpot Writer isn’t lazy; he just does his best work when it’s one small piece at a time.

Lastly, the Stir Fry Writer starts fast but then slows down. He writes a lot of material in an initial burst of creativity but then refines that initial work over the following time period until he is satisfied. Major and minor revisions to his writing occur over that “seasoning” period and not everything that was written in that initial burst will ultimately make the final cut

If had to choose from these three categories, I would say my own writing has been closest to the Crockpot Writer and the Stir Fry Writer. I’ve had a number of posts that started as a single sentence or paragraph and then slowly got added to over several weeks and I’ve had posts where I had the first draft finished in a single hour but then I stopped and came back to them over several days to make adjustments after that first surge of writing adrenaline wore off. The common denominator between the Crockpot and Stir Fry methods that I use is an extended writing period. I’ve tried the microwave method in the past, (see my Week of Blogging experiment from late April and early May, 2014) but like cooking with a microwave, when I try to write quickly under pressure I am not as satisfied with the final product as when I have more time to marinate on a piece of writing.

This particular post is a Stir Fry creation. I wrote the original version one day but came back and tweaked over the course of the following week. Hopefully you enjoyed the meal.