How to write brilliant documents without spending hours at your desk
So writing takes a while for you, does it?
It’s unbelievably frustrating to spend day after day adding ‘Write report’ to your to-do list because you managed to avoid writing it the day before.
And when you can’t put it off any longer, you stare at that horrid blank page, panic, go eat some chocolate, come back, panic again, and just start writing.
Because anything is better than the blank page!
Unformed thoughts, cut-and-pastes from research you did… just get some stuff down and you will have started.
Hallelujah, you’ve started!
You get on a roll, you keep rolling, and a while later you’ve written everything you need to say about the topic.
You leave it for a while and come back to it
Oh shit! It’s awful!
Time is a gift – it gives you an objective view of your own writing. It’s an unpleasant sort of gift though, because after you realise how rambly your writing is, you have to spend ages tidying your draft to make it presentable to others.
Hours of effort later, you have that presentable report. But, my gosh, it took a while!
I have a confession
I wrote like this too. By day, I taught people a sensible writing process. By night, I procrastinated, threw way too much down, and then tweaked for hours to get documents I was happy with.
Why? Because creating things is scary. I might fail. I might embarrass myself. The more writing becomes part of my professional identity, the higher the stakes become.
But all that changed the day my brother wrote his master’s thesis
My brave brother embarked on a master’s degree, and as the family member with a job that involved writing, I was fated to edit his master’s thesis. There’s nothing like facing a mound of paper – for free – to realise that letting the thoughts form on the page is cathartic for a writer but a death sentence for a reader.
Striding through tangles of words, I found his argument, his supporting points, his sources of authority. But friends, it was an uphill battle.
This was the time I discovered that separating thinking from writing isn’t a nice-to-have.
It’s a MUST have.
It’s THE BIGGEST TIME SAVER there is. Period.
Here’s why.
‘Thinking first’ cunningly eases you around your procrastination
It means that when you start writing, you start by writing the important bits
Then you flesh out the important bits
And then you stop
So you only have relevant information to edit, not piles of paragraphs where it turns out you said the same thing in a few different ways
Thinking about a topic is different from writing about a topic
Why do we get so confused about this? Because many of us write to discover what we think about things.
That’s what journalling is. Writing is an incredibly helpful way to get our swirling thoughts in order.
But if we ‘write to think’ at work, it’s a recipe for wasting time.
We write to ourselves, not to our readers
We write waaaay too much
We get attached to what we’ve written and don’t want to delete any of it
A few days later, we realise we’ve produced a monster and spend ages trimming it down
‘But Colleen, I have to write to discover what I think!’
‘Okay. Then free write.’
‘What is free writing?’ you sweetly ask me.
‘It’s when you open a blank page and write down everything that comes to mind on a topic. It’s a way to get out all your thoughts so you can see them.’
But DON’T mistake your free writing for a draft document.
It’s just a brainstorm in sentence form. You still need to:
Open a new blank document
Cut and paste your best phrases across into the second document
Order them logically and fill in any blanks to create a structure that will work for your reader
Format them as headings
Now fill in the blanks underneath each of those headings
That’s a technique you can use if you are a ‘think by writing’ kind of person.
But do you want to jump off the deep end with me?
Do you want to speed up your writing process until you’re stunning yourself (and your boss!) with how quickly you produce fantastic documents?
Then read on, friend. 😊
How to cunningly ease around your initial procrastination
I have eaten my bodyweight in Whittaker’s chocolate thanks to this special kind of hell. The blank page. Getting started. Pure fear.
So, don’t start there.
Grab a scrap of paper. On it, write GOAL.
Then answer this question: If your document works, what will happen?
Example: If this proposal works, we’ll get the funding we’re asking for.
Example: If this health and safety procedure works, people will look out for new hazards and help make our workplace safer.
You’ve already started! Procrastination’s talons start to loosen.
Now, write PRIMARY READER.
Then answer this question: Who does this document need to work for THE MOST for my writing to achieve its goal?
Proposal example: Jan and Ben, who decide what projects are funded.
H&S procedure example: Everyone who works at the Willis Street office.
Now, write SECONDARY READERS.
Then answer this question: Who else might read the document?
Put down everyone else – your reviewer, the internal people who might read or add to your document, external people who might come across it one day.
Why separate these two types of readers?
It will help you order your information. Stuff for the primary readers trumps stuff for the secondary readers.
Now, write your messages.
Write a list of messages your primary readers need to know so that you achieve your goal in writing. Make them one short sentence each.
Think of your secondary readers. Any more messages to add for them? List them below the first set.
Congratulations – you just formed the skeleton of your document!
Type it up, baby! Make it heading font!
How to fill in the blanks underneath each of those headings
This is very important. You’ll be feeling cocky and on a roll now. But don’t ruin it by ignoring the rest of this blog!
Write as if you are speaking directly to your readers
Do not ‘write’. Record (in writing) what you would say if you were talking to your readers.
This crucial step means:
Writing will be as quick as talking
You won’t spend forever deleting unnecessary fluff in your writing
This time, when you leave your writing and come back to it for a final check, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how little fiddling there is to do.
Sure, you’ll need to tweak this or add that. But overall, your document will be focused on your readers and easy for them to understand.
So, to summarise…
Start with a scrap of paper. Don’t stare at a blank page on a screen and freak yourself out
Write your goal and your readers on that scrap
Tell your readers the most important messages on that scrap
Now you’ve got messages to write onto that blank screen-page
Format those messages as the headings of your document
Fill in the blanks underneath the headings as if you’re talking directly to your readers
Tweak and tidy
Boom! Done!
Now you know how to write brilliant documents without spending hours at your desk.
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