2 parts PLEASE read

In a few paragraphs, describe your writing process.

How do you get started? How do you motivate? Are you an outliner, or not? Why? Are you a mover/eater/music listener, etc.?

How soon do you start? Do you like to try and produce a whole draft in one sitting, or do you work on bits and pieces,

or so many words in a day?

Describe what you do when you get a writing assignment and how you proceed from there.

Finally, reflect on whether or not your writing process, as it is currently, usually “works” for you.

If so, why? If not, how can you change it to get different results?

part 2

At one time or another, all of us have probably been frustrated by sitting in traffic, angered by our neighbors, and shocked by the rising price of gasoline.

Many of us have probably been sorry to see a stand of trees torn down, or a cornfield paved over, simply to make room for yet another nondescript chain store or restaurant, while half the mall sits empty, with perfectly good space ready to be rented.

There is often a nostalgia for the “good old days,” when children could play outside safely, and people sat on their porches chatting with the neighbors, and life was kinder and gentler. Of course, those good old days never really existed. Crime has always been around–it just wasn’t as widely reported in the days before the Internet and 24-hour cable news. And statistically, children have always been in greatest danger from those closest to them, and that, sadly, hasn’t changed. And many people fled small towns specifically to get away from the nosy, gossiping neighbors who would sit on the front porch and pass judgment on anyone who seemed “different” in any way.

Still, the realities of long commutes, longer workdays, more demands on our time, and the reality of a finite supply of petroleum has prompted many to look to planned communities, or New Urbanism, as a solution. And as the Baby Boomers and subsequent generations get older–and less able to drive into nearby towns for medical supplies and treatment–a number of theorists have argued that we need to move toward planned communities as a realistic way of integrating our needs, and the needs of the rest of the world.

So, given all of this, what do you think of planned communities? Would you ever consider living in a place such as Celebration USA or Seaside, Florida? Is the loss of freedom and autonomy a worthwhile trade-off to ensure that you’ll live in a neighborhood with a certain “look” and certain values? Or does the whole idea of planned communities give you the creeps? Do these homogeneous neighborhoods seem elitist and Orwellian to you?

Is it possible to build a planned community that combines the best of convenience and neighborhood without devolving into a segregated society? What features might you include if you were planning a community from the ground up?