THE CAPTAIN'S METHOD™Brenda Ueland
Where this shows up in the Captain’s Method
Ueland stands behind the Writing chapter, which holds that thinking and writing are two sides of one coin and puts Wordsmithing last, after Audience, Topic, Storyboard and Organization. Her advice to write freely first matches the garden hose in the Thinking chapter, where the first water runs hot and rubbery before the good ideas come. She also supports guided journaling and the Connection principle, which explains an idea through a concrete particular.
- Capacity
She treats writing as a craft built by writing often and freely before any rules.
- Focus
She defends idle, wandering time, which she called moodling, as the place ideas form.
- Personality
She asks a writer to trust their own voice, a self-respect that carries past the page.
Ueland was born in Minneapolis in 1891, the daughter of a judge and of Clara Ueland, the first president of the Minnesota League of Women Voters. She graduated from Barnard in 1913, worked as a magazine writer in New York, and came home to teach writing at a branch of the Minneapolis YWCA. If You Want to Write (1938) grew out of those classes. She walked up to nine miles a day, set a swimming record for those over 80, and died in 1985.