How do I write?

A look at my writing technique for Medium

Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash*

Now, I know that some of you will say that the answer to the question in the title is poorly, and I have a series of report cards from school that would agree with you. I was (am?) a shocker when it comes to writing.

But, believe it or not, I do have a process. I have a writing workflow.

My writing workflow

As I said in Why do I write? — “When I was at school, I didn’t like writing. In fact, and you may think this is obvious, English was my weakest subject.” — I still think it is my weakest skill. But, over the years, I have got better (I hope — he said, fishing for a compliment). It all came down to reading more and writing more — and developing a workflow for my writing.

So, how do I write? Well, I have ten stages.

Stage 1: Planning

Every so often, I skip stage one; it all depends on what I am writing.

For me, the planning stage is not the classic ‘plan your essay’ as we were taught at school. We now have computers and word processors (or in my case Ulysses — more on the App below) and so, for me, planning the structure and order of a post is not such a big deal. I get the words on the page, and then I form the structure. Edit and polish — as my…