Thanks very much for your extensive thoughts, Arthur!
You’ve added some helpful context to the argument that I make in the article. You’re correct inasmuch as I have in mind “just write!” writing that is self-indulgent and/or disconnected from any efforts to do something with that writing that could help to refine it.
The basic point I’m trying to make is this: instructing up-and-coming writers to “just write!” or to “write 500 words every day!” has the potential to lead these writers astray if the advice is interpreted as meaning that all one must do to become a better writer is put words to paper or screen on a consistent basis. That’s one part of the process but by no means is it the most important.
Aspiring writers need feedback — insightful and meaningful feedback, and lots of it. Writing only for, and to, yourself is likely to result in a circular process of stagnation: as I say in the article, there’s nothing to stop you from committing the same errors (whether stylistic, analytical, or substantive) over and over if you never expose your writing to the critique of others. My worry is that the “just write!” advocates are unwittingly spreading the message that something “magical” happens to the quality of one’s writing merely as a result of writing more and more often. I don’t believe this is the case.
A golfer who routinely slices his drive off the tee and who refuses to learn which changes to his stance, grip, and swing path would ameliorate his wayward shots will not correct his slice — no matter how many hundreds of hours he spends golfing the same way. Similarly, I think it unlikely that a writer who “just writes” more every day without actively seeking to understand which aspects of her writing (and thinking!) she should refine will not easily or necessarily produce more coherent, intelligible, or persuasive prose.
The confronting of oneself through one’s writing of which you speak, the genuine effort to see one’s writing for what it is and to commit to improving it, is indeed what’s required if one wishes to become a more talented author. This is an active writing process, which involves explicit efforts to learn and develop, rather than a passive writing exercise, which is based on the notion that the mere practice of making marks with a pen or pushing buttons on a keyboard automatically or significantly elevates one’s skills.
