Back to Basics
Topic: Back to Basics
Remember those very simple questions of who, what, where, when, how, and why? These become two-dimensional when dealing with writing. We have one dimension of the author and another dimension of the writing.

The Author
Who
Well, that would be you, the author.

What
What are we writing today? Will it be a story, a poem, or a song?

Where
Where will we write? Will we write at home, at work, in the library?

When
When will we write? Now sounds good.

How
Will we write longhand or use a computer? Maybe crayons would be more in keeping with out mood.

Why
This is probably the most important question we need to answer. Why are we writing. Words can be used for a variety of reasons. We can express something, explain something, create something, or whatever else suits us at the moment. Knowing why helps us to answer all the other questions.

These are very basic questions and using don't even require acknowledgement, but they actually do need answers every time we write.

The Writing
Who
Who are our characters? Who is telling the story? Why is the story inteded for, our audience?

What
What happens in the writing? If this is a poem, what are we writing about? What is the outcome? What do we hope to achieve?

Where
Where does the story take place? This can be very broad or more definitive. Is it in another country? Is it in a dark room?

When
When does our story take place? This could get really interesting. Is the story in the past? Does it take place in the future? We could even base our story in the present.

How
How will we get our message across? Will we present the message straight out or will we use other means such as imagery or inneundo? Will it be a serious piece or will there be humor involved?

Why
Why does this message need to be delivered? Someone needs to care in order for our writing to be worthwhile.

I haven't decided which of these questions is most important to the writing. In order to be successfull, all of them need to be carefully considered. It sounds rather dumb to use such small words to evaluate our writing, but I think they are valid issues.

What do you think?