How to write an article
Oh yeah, meta
Writing isn’t a natural thing to me, coming from a very technical background in High School and Uni, I would never say that writing was my strong suit growing up nor I imagined that I’ll be writing this today. I’ve been trained with numbers, so it was more natural to me, but I did write for my master’s thesis; honestly, though, it’s boring and I wouldn’t wish my enemies to suffer reading through it. When I changed careers as a Designer/Design Facilitator, I realized that my thinking is my most important tool and I can’t fully use it if I can’t communicate my ideas well, so I had to pick up writing.
Writing is an exercise in thinking; you get your thoughts, organize it, arrange it, put it on paper or digital, and finally, you read it, to see if it makes sense. Organizing your thoughts is a very important life skill because you need it to communicate your ideas. Whatever profession you may be in, you’ll need to communicate your thoughts well; to sell products, to convince your boss to let you start a campaign, to communicate relay to your team the code that you came up with, you need others to understand what you’re thinking.
Very much like Design, writing is very processed based, there has to be a framework and a methodology to come up with an essay. So when I started getting into writing, I tapped into my design chops to create my own writing process and I’m here to share that.
1. Read
Reading is the most important skill for writing because without input, there is no output. You need a lot of ideas stewing in your head to come up with your own and to come up with something to write about. It also lets you develop a writing style because you get influenced by the authors that you read.
The thing they call writer’s block, it’s a sign that the writer hasn’t been reading enough, so this is the way to prevent that.
2. Think of an audience
You’re article/essay will fall on deaf ears(blind eyes?) if it doesn’t resonate with anyone, so think of the people that you want to read your piece. This makes it easier for you to narrow down on a topic to write about as well as how you would write it.
If you can’t think of an audience, try writing to yourself, there are a lot of people like you and share the same interests.
3. Come up with the topic
Now that you have an audience, think of what matters to them, what they would want to read, and what they usually think about; the most common areas are Work, Life, and Entertainment. If you have a specific niche audience, think of the topic areas that they would get into; for example, Designers like Design tools, Methodologies, Design Trends, and Designer life, you know how this works.
Now that you have topic areas, find the specific topics within them that you’d want to write about, it’s a lot easier now. Choose one and turn it into a working title, you could change it later.
Do note that writing doesn’t have to be about something that you completely know or master, it could be about a question that you’d want to answer too. This the best time to do research, then take what you’ve learned and put it into writing; it has the added benefit of doubling your learning.
4. Create an outline
Break down the topic into an outline of questions; we’re trying to make the whole writing process easier by cutting the task into smaller ones.
If you use questions, it will be easier to write down content because it just feels like you are answering questions, instead of creating ideas. You could also use a recipe approach, much like how I am writing this article now.
Do make sure that your outline is continuous and is making sense. Think of it as a story, you don’t want your reader to get lost in the middle.
5. Write idea points
Now that you have an outline of questions or steps, prefill them with bullet points of ideas that answer each section of the outline. This helps you gauge the cohesion of your ideas and judge if you need to move a few things or cut out parts of it. Also, when you get into the writing of the content, you already have ideas to build on.
6. Write the content
Using the bullet points, fill in the rest of the outline by building on each idea that you previously wrote down, but try to write it in sentences now.
Remember that your sentences should be built by words that your readers could understand and relate to; also, your paragraphs should be cohesive and built by sentences that follow a logical train of thought. Use some paragraph breaks too, to give your reader some time to breathe when jumping from one idea to the next. (Thanks for this tip, Robert!)
At this stage, you just have to write, don’t edit yet. You’re trying to get as many ideas out as possible and judging the ideas keeps it from flowing.
7. Take a break
After writing the content, you have Draft #1, take a break to get your mind off of writing and go do something else so you could a fresh pair of eyes for editing. If you’re writing on a time constraint, you could skip this step.
8. Edit
Read your piece to make sure that there are no errors and that your sentences, paragraphs, and outline progressively build on the same idea in a logical manner; also check the cohesion of your outline and the storytelling flow. If some of your sentences could be written in a better way, change it, and don’t be afraid to take out sentences whose ideas are passing or don’t really build on paragraph or outline.
After editing, don't be surprised if your article is shorter than the first draft. On your first go, you would be more liberal with what you put in because you’re getting ideas out. When you’re editing, you’re judging those ideas and selecting which ones to include, so it’s normal that the second version is shorter.
Do the necessary changes and then you’re done!
You could definitely repeat the editing if you want or have to, but one go should be good enough.
9. Share
Get someone to read it so they could give some feedback, find some errors you didn’t notice, and get some value out of it.
Use the feedback to improve and write better in the future.
Reading remains to be the main way that people consume content, so if you want to reach people, sell, or convey ideas, it’s best to pick up the skill of writing. Even if the content that you’d be producing isn’t in written form, having an organized and structured thinking process helps you communicate with others better as well as come up with your own ideas, so pick up the skill of writing.
This piece was inspired by a guide to writing by one of the greatest minds of our generation, Dr. Jordan B. Peterson.
I suggest reading it too, he’s a lot more eloquent with his writing and is just an amazing thinker overall. Here’s the link: https://medium.com/practicecomesfirst/dr-jordan-b-petersons-10-step-guide-to-clearer-thinking-through-essay-writing-1ab79a94937
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Reach me: abel@teneleven.design
Follow me on Instagram: @abelmaningas
Join the Kung Fu Writing Challenge
My friend Robert Skrobe is doing this 30-minute writing challenge and I decided to jump in. I’ll be doing this every day for 30 days to improve both my thinking and writing.
If you’re interested in taking the challenge, check out this article for more information: https://medium.com/dallas-design-sprints/heres-how-to-participate-in-our-month-long-writing-challenge-41ca795a5176
