“Writing grows out of many different purposes”

I need to come up with a revised outline and schedule for the mysterious book that I never manage to get more than a few minutes to work on every 9 months. I dug out all the books and notes last week, from a bag that I carried to Virginia at Christmas. I didn’t pull them out in Virginia, and I hadn’t pulled them out here either.

So they’re pulled out, and I’ve read through them. The problem is that I’m stuck. I need to work on writing beliefs 5–11, and I’m totally unable to think of anything useful to say. Perhaps it’s partially that #5 seems to be a wider topic, but I’m not really sure. I have read and reread the text of #5, but I can’t come up with anything. It’s so bad that I’m wondering if I should dump the entire chapter. That’s annoying though given that I currently have 8 pages of single-spaced text that DO work.

I thought that I should try to freewrite, but that didn’t get me anywhere either. I don’t know how I’m going to get past this; and I feel like I have to figure out how to get past #5 if I’m going to come up with a schedule. :(

The evil #5 states, “Writing grows out of many different purposes,” and it explains that “Writing is not just one thing. It varies in form, structure, and production process according to its audience and purpose.” Now that should be easy as hell to come up with text on. My problem is that for all the others I have included either a personal anecdote about my writing experience or a story from my teaching, and I’ll be dashed if I can think of a good anecdote for #5. And I’ll be honest, as I cast forward and look at the rest of them, stories aren’t springing to mind there either.

Maybe it’s just been too long since I taught. Surely I have stories. They just don’t seem to be handy right now, and I haven’t got a clue how to summon them forth. :( Where are the dang things hiding, and what am I going to do with #5 until I figure it out?