On the writing process
Sometimes it’s possible to sit down and start typing the beginning of an article, and just keep going until you reach the end, having discovered a satisfying middle about half-way through.
But not always.
This morning I sat down to write something fairly short (about 400 words) on a topic I know well. A few days previously, I’d written almost 200 words about it in outline form, for the benefit of the editor who was commissioning me to write it, so you’d think that conjuring up the rest wouldn’t be a problem.
It was, though. I tried the first approach - write from the beginning and see what comes out. Something reasonable emerged, but I was being far too wordy and faffy. I reached 380 words in no time at all and hadn’t covered half the subject. I needed to start again.
So I returned to the outline I’d submitted and actually used it. The freshly-produced copy was decent in places, so I could paste it down into the second, outline-inspired draft. Things were soon looking much more promising.
I write this post not in some misguided hope that anyone will learn anything from it, but more as a note-to-self. Sometimes I’m guilty of charging blindly into work without stopping to think first about what it really needs. Rather like mending dead household applicances, writing a decent article often benefits from having a cup of tea and a bit of a think beforehand.
