Creative writing and software development (part 1)

Comparing writing with software development is very interesting. There is an essay by Edgar Allan Poe (available here: The Philosophy of Composition), where he discusses the creation of his poem The Raven. My impression is that the writing process generally is quite fuzzy, but Poe’s delineation indicates that his approach was surprisingly rational and methodic. Allegedly, he began with deciding on the length of the poem (some one hundred lines, since the reader should be able to read it all without pause), and then continued to decide on what impression to convey to the reader, and settled for sadness.

He thought that melancholy would be the most appropriate poetical tone to achieve this, and in the next phase he went on to select the rhythm and sound of the poem (in line with the poetical tone). He chose to have a refrain with one single word: Nevermore (because of its melancholic sound). The effect he wanted wouldn’t work with a human speaking this word, since it should be monotonous. He considered a parrot, but dismissed it when he thought that a raven would be “infinitely more in keeping with the intended tone.”

He proceeds in the same step by step fashion, thinking that the most sad thing would be the death of a beautiful woman – and even more sad the mourning of her lover. He first writes the climax, and then the preceding verses, establishing that climax. And so on and so on. If Poe actually was this rational in writing poetry, I think that he must be quite exceptional; I definitely think it’s more common for writers to use a very intuitive and seemingly chaotic process.