• How I Write…

  Filed under Uncategorized
  Apr 17

  This is something I wrote about a year ago on a well known forum. I have put it here for your reading pleasure…enjoy.
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  I have found I write more coherent stuff when I have been writing for 20-30 minutes. It is like I have to ’shift’ gears to hit a style. Also, I start writing with pen and paper. For some reason, this helps me to get into writing mode. Writing gets the chatter out of my mind. Typing tends to, but not always, puts me into editor mode.

  I define writing as ‘writing without regard for sentence structure, spellling or punctuation.’ It is the pure act of getting the idea down. Editing is taking a something that has already been written and improving it. I have found that trying to edit while I write slows me down.

  Write first. Edit later. If it is a new idea, I don’t edit the new idea as I am writing it. I don’t like to use any word processor that points out grammatical errors or spelling mistakes because it forces me to edit. I don’t necessarily want to edit, I want to write.

  Then, I type.

  When it is all in digital form, I look at the piece and see if the order is correct. Did I write about step 2 before step 1? If so, I re-order the paragraphs.

  I absolutely don’t let the sentence structure get in the way. If I can’t figure out how to write a sentence, I write it as wordy as I need it to be to get the idea across for the ruthless editing phase later. As long as the ideas are what I want, it is fine.

  Once the order is correct and all the ideas are down in some form, I take a break.

  When I get back, I go into ruthless editing mode and correct sentence structure, wording, punctuation, spelling. When I think it is as good as it can get, I put it aside for a day. Or a few days.

  It is only after this break I can really see where the problem areas are. Editing at this point is simple: usually, I am just removing redundancies and adding clarity. Then, I save what I have written as a master. I may use it as it is, or use it to write a web version.

  This is what works for me.

One Response to “How I Write…”

1. 

   Just Another Homo sapiens Living On This Pale Blue Dot » Writing for the Web and Usability said on June 3rd, 2005 at 11:02 pm

   [...] really long time to write even a small of amount of content for a web site. I found these tips for writing, that seem to make sense - maybe they can help someone else too. [...]

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