Writing Tips for Designers
Too many times, writers have trouble just getting started. Perfectionism sets in, and it feels like the entire story or report has to come out onto the paper fully formed! Writing is the way to get thoughts onto paper, right?
WRONG. Writing is about more than just translating thoughts into words on the page or screen. It’s an active process that actually facilitates thinking in the first place. As my grad school advisor said, “if you’re not writing, you’re not thinking.”
Writing is not just an activity for students who need to produce essays for course grades. It is also a central skill for designers to be able to communicate their data and insights in a way that moves their audience to action. Furthermore, the writing process is actually pretty similar to the design process.
Empathy: Who is your imagined audience—who are they and what do you want them to take away from your writing? What are their expectations of this kind of writing?
Define: What thesis are you arguing, or what lesson are you teaching? What goal of yours is does this writing contribute to?
Ideate: In the world of composition, this is called the “zero draft” in which you sketch out ideas (in prose, or as post-its or a flowchart, etc.). The point is to get ideas out of your head in a low-stakes way. What makes the most sense, given your goal? What idea are you actually most excited about?
Prototype: Here is where you actually put pen to paper (or key to screen? not sure that metaphor works…). Don’t worry about perfection. Just get something down. Give yourself a dedicated time-box to follow that exciting idea. Don’t worry about it being perfect. You’ve already done the hard part.
Test: This correlates to the revision process. After taking some time away from this writing (if that’s an option), read over what you have and create a Reverse Outline. This is a method in which you summarize/assign key points to what has been written, in order to construct a faithful outline of the writing. Does this outline make sense given your writing goal? If not, revise! This method also ensures that you start revising at the highest level (paragraphs, chapters, or sections, depending on the length of your writing). Once you are satisfied with your outline, then revise at the sentence level, and then at the word level, until you are pretty satisfied with what you have.
And now the only question is: what will you write first?