From rereading to invention: the role of the text produced so far in the genesis of literary texts

Writers spend a lot of time rereading their own texts (Wengelin et al. 2023; Quinlan et al. 2013). Rereading plays an important role in the revision process. Or as Bryant puts it: “Revision is the writer-as-reader’s rewriting” (Bryant 2002, 98). Hayes’ (2012) model of the writing process categorises the different cognitive functions at work in a writing process and the (external) text produced so far (TPSF) is, in this model, controlled by the internal transcriber. However, Lindgren et al. (2019) state that there are dynamic ways in which the TPSF can feed into the internal writing process. Evaluating and revising of the TPSF are not the only processes associated with rereading. Writers namely also tend to ‘look back’ at previously written text in order to generate new text (Breetvelt et al. 1994; Wengelin et al. 2023). In this way, the TPSF functions as “a catalyst for invention” (Leijten et al. 2014, 325). This brings us to the focus of genetic criticism, which Ferrer defines as the science of written invention (2011).

This paper explores the role of the TPSF in the genesis of literary texts. The keystroke data collected from literary writers using the keystroke logger Inputlog (Leijten & Van Waes 2013) allows us to examine how the TPSF guides new text production in literary writing. Unlike analogue versions of a text, keystroke-based reconstructions of the writing process allow us to analyse the text at any point in the writing process. While this does not allow us to study ‘lookbacks’ that have not left a textual trace, as would be possible with eyetracking (Wengelin et al. 2023), we can still observe the state of the text, for example, as new ideas emerge, or as ideas about the text or specific formulations change direction. Within genetic criticism, this allows us to hypothesise about how certain formulations in the TPSF have led to revisions or the insertion of new aspects into the text. In this paper I will discuss several examples that provide insight into how, in literary writing, the text emerges through a constant engagement with what has already been written.