My Current Writing Process
And the reasons behind each step of it
Writing on Medium is a lot of fun for me.
Seeing my article on the web and knowing I produced it is a great feeling. Even at the modest stage of my Medium progress, seeing even a few people like and comment is a great feeling. Many of you will agree.
This alone will not keep us around…
We need to make a process that is sustainable, manageable, and enjoyable.
So here is my process and what each stage aims to achieve.
1. Planning
What I use — pen and paper (sometimes).
For an article like this, the content writes itself and comes from my own knowledge, so I don’t need to do research.
I can jot down the key points on a piece of paper. I have my process memorised and have the reasons why each step exists, so it can pour from my mind at a moment’s notice.
At this stage, I am not making detailed research pieces. When I decide to go that route as I mature as a writer, I will spend more time on planning and research.
2. Writing
What I use — Microsoft Word
This is the part you should concern yourself least with.
Put the words on the paper quickly. Worry about it looking pretty later.
I wrote an article about the difference between the editor and writer mindsets.
When you are making a sculpture, you don’t spend days bringing the rock into the room. You bring it in, and then the real work starts!
Getting the words on the paper for editing is bringing the rock in the room. Get them on the paper. Once they are, that’s when we start editing.
3. Editing — Making the Article Do What I Want
What I use — Microsoft Word
This is where I make the article say what I want it to say. Also, I will use Words spellcheck function to tidy up the spelling.
I take the batch of vomited out words, make it communicate what I want it to and add whatever elements I want it to have. The sentence structure might change. The order of the points I make might change.
There is no one way to do this. Improve the article in the way that suits you best.
4. Editing — Making It More Readable
What I use — Hemingway App
Now we have produced an article that meets the criteria we want for its message.
What next?
We need to make it readable so that it’s a smooth and enjoyable reading experience for the viewer.
Hemingway is a brilliant, free-to-use app that does this. Copy our article into Hemingway, and it highlights several areas:
a. Adverbs — These are usually not needed in non-fiction. We can remove them without dimming the quality of the article. I don’t remove all them, but most of the time the app is correct. Not needed; get rid.
b. Passive voice — Where we write the sentence the wrong way around and have the object first. Sometimes it’s better this way, but it’s a bad habit if done too much.
c. We can simplify — This is where we have used too many words in a phrase, or it’s a little more complicated than it needs to be. It points it out and gives us a more streamlined alternative.
d. Hard to read sentences — This is where we go heavy with the commas and make a long sentence. Usually, we can resolve it by breaking the sentence into two smaller ones.
e. Very hard to read sentences — This is where we make no sense, and we need to re-do the sentence completely.
5. Editing — Final Grammar Check
What I use — Quillbot
Microsoft Word in my experience, does not cut it when it comes to grammar. So once I’ve Hemingwayed, I load up Quillbot on my browser and copy the article from Hemingway to that.
I don’t accept all suggested changes because some of the corrections aren’t necessary or correct. I go through them one by one. Even if there are 50, it takes a few minutes. When you see some of the errors you leave, you’ll be glad you took the extra step to do a proper grammar check.
A grammar check outside of your word processor will save your article from a blunder.
6. Adding Extras — Signatures, Links, Pictures Etc
What I Use — Where I Get My Links from + Unsplash for Pictures
This is one I’ve not added yet.
Those with sidegigs will want to link the reader to our:
. Blog
. Affiliate products
. New E-book.
The way I intend to do it is to have a pre-formatted signature, which I update as I go along. This will be either on a separate Word document or in my Medium drafts. A quick copy and paste, and we can hit publish!
Conclusion
I hope that there is something you can take from looking at my process. Outlining the stages of how you produce an article is a beneficial thing to do. Even experienced writers can gain something from a regular assessment of their process.
