In a previous note post On Learning to Code, I wrote about my general learning process. In another note On Becoming an Aspiring Writer I mentioned couple of inspirational citations on writing encouragements & how to write. I intentionally left out my current writing process because my its very messy! Inspired by Jonathan Bossenger‘s The Process of Writing post, I reluctantly thought to share my own process of writing to other inspiring writers.

A Messy Process

Because I didn’t had any formal writing class in my schooling, my writing process is very messy trial & error. In my small world, I compare my writing process with cooking foods in a kitchen. All foods are prepared in various kitchen differently and we don’t care what recipe was followed as long as the food is clean, safe & tasty. It could be a food from grandma’s recipe and if it taste good, we love it!

Just like a cook or a chef, writers or aspiring writers may follow formal or informal writing process. Readers care good content that they enjoy to consume. At this phase of my writing my goal would be to make better final product without caring much on the process. Following a structured writing process is important because it makes us a efficient & better writer. My current writing process follows the following steps:

• Start with an outline: This is very initial stage where I just write tentative title, source of any inspiration article or post, tentative topics that I want to address.
• Collecting resources & filling the gaps: This is what I call my research, usually it takes a while for me to complete this phase unless I am in a rush. During this period, I keep on adding bits and pieces of content in various sections. If the topic that I am working on is unfamiliar, it usually takes much longer or else I return to my working drafts more frequently.
• Prepare first draft: In this phase, I work on completing all the intended sections as much as possible but some section may contain a single word or phrases, or a personal reminder note.
• Editing & filling the gaps: In this phase, I do both minor edits and fill the remaining gaps. Often I leave at this stage for day or more before I do my final edits.
• Final edit & post: At this stage my post is almost complete and I go through the content & its flow, check missing word(s), typo etc.

Jonathan’s writing process (brain vomit, research, first draft, break, final draft & second edit) appears to be more of a consensus approach followed by most folks. I am probably missing some and I would aim to incorporate those missing parts in my future writing process and keep learning while writing.

For many of us who think the article may not be good and hesitate to publish, the following quote from author Liz Gilbert offers inspiration to continue writing:

“I think perfectionism is just a high-end, haute couture version of fear.”

Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

In my case, most of my writing inspiration comes from Just Write article from Sara Soueidan. I often use the following statement from to remind myself to continue writing.

Write down what you learned, no matter how big or small. Start a blog and publish your writings there. Don’t think about whether or not people will like or read your articles — just give them a home and put them out there. Just write.

Sara Soueidan – Just write

Articles are Judged on their Merit

Readers make their judgement based on the content they read and not how the article was prepared. The writing process does not matter for its reader, just like we don’t care how our car was built or how hard it was to write Firefox browser code. We compare finished products on their face value.

This post was inspired by The Process of writing by Jonathan Bossenger, a open source software & freelance developer. Cover photo by hannah grace on Unsplash