I've considered myself to be a casual writer for most of my life; being proud of my style of prose be it for career, comedy, or scholastic essays.
I once had a short chapter book masquerading as an observational humour blog. I've always done fairly well on scholastic or professional reports. Over the past year I've started to dive into publishing more UX-focused blogs and articles.
But I've never, ever liked drafting an outline before I started writing. [This is a good time to get your, “You don’t have to tell us that; we could tell!” snickering comments out of the way. I accept the truth haha.]
It wasn't until tonight that it dawned on me why… why it feels so naturally liberating to go with the flow and let my fingers improvise their dance across the keyboard...
I prefer to be taken on my own journey.
I want to go on my own adventure; never knowing where I'll end up, what examples I'll use, or what nuggets of information I'll conjure up along the way.
I think it’s roughly after we’ve progressed past spelling bees but weren’t yet strapped with term papers [admittedly quite a gap], that teachers began the borderline enforcement of drafting guidelines for what we wanted to cover before committing a single word of content to the final page.
I am and am not a planner in my day-to-day life; at least at present. I can't quite explain how that works, but it’s somewhere between overthinking every possible pathway and ‘winging’ it. Needless to say, attempting to create an article outline has never been my thing. It feels like a burden—a creative barrier preventing me from simply writing something to see where it takes me.
Where do I want to lead the reader? What specific points do I want to make? What structure do I want to follow? How long should it be? I make a living from knowing what and how to ask the right questions at the right times, yet the desire to do so eludes me like an active avoidance to define and adhere to a pre-structured writing approach.
My golden key and suggestion for all who are having a hard time writing is to wash, rinse, repeat.
You take a shower because the outcome you want is to feel, smell, and look clean. I believe that as long as you keep that final outcome in the forefront of your mind, that overarching thought dying to be conveyed, then you'll be successful. Granted, validating success is a different subject entirely.
So try to write that opening sentence and see how you feel. Is it building up to the outcome you want? Does it sound enticing? Are you feeling content and ready to move on to the next or does it need to be washed and scrubbed some more?
Feel free to keep some experimental thoughts, quotes, and lines on the side for future editing consideration. Rinse them away as needed until you feel more confident about the cleanliness of your message and flow. [Yes, I'm getting a little carried away with this metaphor, but there's no stopping me now!]
Repeat.
See what you come up with. Take a break and come back tomorrow. Change it all if it's not taking you where you wanted. Let your mind wonder while holding true to that candle of an idea lighting your way.
There's freedom to be found in writing for yourself without formal guidelines, outlines, or plans. Every journey has a story to bring back and share.
This article was originally published on 18 July 2018 on my LinkedIn page.
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