by Skellie
Study of a Woman’s Hands by Leonardo Da Vinci
If you’ve seen the creation process behind a drawing or painting you’ll know that artists rarely produce a finished artwork without a rough sketch beneath. What starts off looking like a lopsided scarecrow eventually becomes a beautifully rendered person. The canvas that begins as a few splotches of color eventually morphs into a life portrait.
The artist knows generally what they want to paint. What they might not be sure on until later is the detail. This model is incredibly useful to us. As producers of written content we can adapt this strategy to what we write.
This is a simple tip, but it can increase the quality of what you write and allow you to produce articles faster.
Once you have an idea for an article it’s relatively easy to work out what you want to say. It’s the how that trips us up, so often causing writer’s block. We’re trying to paint a masterpiece in the first sweep, when every great masterpiece grows from very humble beginnings.
Building the foundations of a strong article
Like a painting, the articles we write need a firm foundation to stand on. It requires we put up with some pretty ugly writing (for a little while).
I use this method all the time now, and every blog post I write starts out looking horrible. If I published the posts as they are then I’d lose my readership overnight – just like any painter who tried to show off a sketch as a finished piece would be laughed at.
A post like ‘Criticism: A Rite of Passage on the Web?’ (picked at random) would have looked a lot like this when I first sketched it out:
1. Recognize that unconstructive criticism has no value
2. ‘mass viewing + unaccountability = idiocy’
3. Logic doesn’t work on an illogical person
4. Aim to diffuse
A little ugliness can be a good thing
(in the beginning)
The above ugly and useless for the reader. Without explanation, none of those points have value. For the writer, however, this sketch is incredibly useful. Rather than tacking the post as a whole, this process breaks down the article into manageable chunks. You’ve sketched out what you’re going to say. This makes the how easier.
Flesh out your first point. Explain it. Qualify it. Define it. Say everything that you want about it. Once you’re done, move on to the next point, tackling each one at a time. As you focus on one point, don’t think about the others.
It’s a lot easier to write one paragraph than it is to write a whole article, but an article is built out of paragraphs, one after the other.
When you’re done, your sketch points can be deleted. Or they can be retained, as sub-headings, or emphasized sentences. If it helped you write the piece, chances are it will help visitors to read it.
Give it a try: next time you write an article to publish online, first, set out (very loosely) your points and then flesh them out, one at a time. You could even write the introduction last if you like.
The advantage of doing so is that introductions can seem a lot less daunting when you know exactly what you’re introducing!
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20 Comments, Comment or Ping
Brian Auer
Great tip Skellie, I actually find myself doing this type of thing more and more lately. I start with the main section headers, then I add the lists if they apply, then I fill in the rest to make it flow. And yes, the introduction usually comes last for me.
Nov 10th, 2007
Bente Lilja Bye
Yes, this is how I work, too. It’s even more important, I think, when you try to express yourself in a language that is not your mother tongue. I have written a lot of very strange English that could only be interpreted by me!
Sometimes ones ideas are very clear when you start writing and things flow easily. Other times you know you have a good idea but it is kind of hard to get it out even for you to “understand”. Then writing section by section/paragraph by paragraph will clear your thoughts during the process.
Again I am impressed by your communication skills - short and sharp analysis all the time
Nov 10th, 2007
Monika @ The Writers Manifesto
Good pointers Skellie,
I have found that if I try too much to write a half way decent article or post, I struggle more than simply writing from the heart as if I tell a story.
Therefore I cannot analyze too much of what goes where and when, I just write. Analyzing seems to cripple me more than helping in this regard.
Hope this makes sense.
Monika
Nov 10th, 2007
Wayne Liew
I actually have a draft folders which are consists of Work in Progress and Ready to Post subfolders for my blog. In order to meet up with my tight posting frequencies (one post per day), I do need to pre-write some posts during my free time.
I do agree that starting out a post with a draft of the main points will be great as it enables you to limit your thinking other than making your posts go off-tangent. The reason to this might be that most of us has poor mind-mapping skills.
Writing it out one-by-one is the way to state clearly what you really want to convey. Readers will be able to understand rather than you confusing them with a post which is turning round and round.
Nov 10th, 2007
nomad-one
As an artist and designer I know exactly what you’re talking about and though at times I’ve tried using this method with writing I haven’t done it to great success. I think impatience is one of the key things which negatively affects my writing.
I rush through writing something down just to get it done and don’t craft it. I suppose I need to start applying design principles to my writing as well if I am ever to achieve success in that arena.
Skellie, when you write it’s definitely like art, so interesting, informative, enlightening and valuable. Thanks for all the help, many of us out here need it desperately.
Nov 10th, 2007
Tess
The wonderful writer Anne Lamott talks about the same thing in her “how to write” book, Bird by Bird. She refers to it, wonderfully, as the “shitty first draft” stage.
Nov 10th, 2007
Caroline Middlebrook
A new habit that I have started to adopt is writing my blog posts at least a day in advance of publishing. When I come back to look at the post the next day I almost always find new insights (not to mention typos!) that I hadn’t thought of when I was in the midst of writing it.
I think you can get too close to your own work. Sometimes I’ll comeback to post idea a day or two later and it doesn’t seem like such a good idea anymore and I am grateful that I didn’t publish it in haste.
Nov 11th, 2007
Ivy
I had to smile when I was reading this article. I realized that different processes works for different people, and maybe different techniques are required for different types of post. Just a thought.
Nov 11th, 2007
skellie
Thanks everyone for your comments so far — I’ve read them all. I’m a little rushed for time at the moment but will try and respond later today :).
Nov 11th, 2007
Evan Hadkins
Excellent advice.
You may find in the process,as I do, that you find ideas coming for other posts.
I find I need to note these immediately with a word or two or a point or two, otherwise I lose them.
I also find that I may end up writing something different than I started out to. In this case I keep the earlier idea too.
Nov 11th, 2007
Alex Kay
Hi Skellie!
I paint and draw a lot myself, and I can easily relate to what you say in this post. Sometimes, when I am the most inspired, and I am in my “creativity” mood, I just start drawing without sketching first.
9/10 times my drawings and paintings this way turn out really bad.
One of the best posts so far. Thank you.
- Alex
Nov 11th, 2007
Lexi
Nice article skellie!
i actually “sketch” my article by making a mind map of it. it really helps me get my thoughts organised and not feel so overwhelmed, especially if the topic is complicated.
mind maps are particularly effective for visually-oriented people.
lexi
Nov 12th, 2007
Joseph
Good insight. You connect pretty well with me Skellie.
I’ve noticed that there are times when I write a monologue and it flows out of me like water flowing down a river. Other times, I may write something and not be fully satisifed. My gut always lets me know. When that happens I let it breath, until “it” tells me that I should go back to it. In those cases, I would call an unfinished post a skeleton or a rough draft. It’s important for writers to know that as long as you get down the ‘basic idea’ of what you wish to express, than you can refine it and provide the skeleton with more definition at the proper time.
You make reference to that and I wanted to reiterate because it is important.
Thanks - Joseph
Nov 15th, 2007
Dean
Yikes, this is a bit scary. It looks like I was the only one awake when the English teacher was talking about essay plans. And I thought I was one of the cool kids.
It’s a great title for a simple idea though. You can definitely learn something from that.
Nov 20th, 2007
Adam
Huh, pre-writing a post….duh I should have had a V8…I believe that I hit the publish button all to easy…I’ll give this method a try.
Dec 14th, 2007
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