writing process

In an ideal world, crafting sentences should be the last thing you do when you write a document. What, then, comes first?

A blank screen – or page – is the stuff of nightmares. The temptation is to just start writing and see where the words lead.

But there are problems with this.

To start with, it’s inefficient. Often when you create documents in this way you end up having to rewrite them when you see the poor quality of your first draft. (Too often, we even end up rewriting the rewrite.)

But it also doesn’t produce the best quality document. This is, perhaps, because writers can’t do too many things at the same time. When they’re thinking about what to say, they shouldn’t be thinking about how to say it. These are both very different, and hugely important, tasks in their own right. Each one deserves a writer’s full concentration.

So, if writing is the last thing you should do, what processes come before it?

  1. Start by working out what you want to achieve
    No one creates a document for the sake of having a document. It has a purpose in its existence, and the writer must know what that purpose is.
  2. Next, consider your message(s)
    Recognise that writing is about communications, which means communicating something – and that something is a message. So what is your message? Why’s it so good? Could it be improved? How do you create and optimise your message?
  3. Now create your structure
    Once you know your message(s), the next step is to create a structure for your document that reflects what you’re trying to achieve.

At the end of this process you will have the blueprint for your document. (In our Structured Writing Method we call this a storyboard.) This is an ideal stage to share your document ideas, or get approval from the right people.

Then – and only then – are you ready to start writing.

Now your focus isn’t on what you’re trying to achieve, or what your message is, or your structure. It is simply on putting together some fine looking sentences.

Natalie Wassell is a Marketing Account Executive at Writing Machine.

Read more about what you should be doing before you start writing:

Objective setting: why it’s so important when creating marketing collateral

Structuring: probably the best writing tip in the world

Writing is the last thing you should do – and it’s the last process in our Structured Writing Method too (although we prefer to call it ‘crafting’).

Click here to find out how we teach it, or here to find out how our agency puts it into practice.