A 5-Step Writing Process for Truly Original Content
Move from messy ideas to a unique final draft by mastering the art of acting upon your thoughts
Thoughts and ideas are the building blocks of all good writing. But what ends up getting built with these can vary drastically from person to person.
Personally, I use a 5-step process to capture my thoughts and structure them into content. It’s a dead simple method I use for freelance work and for writing this Substack publication.
In fact, the idea to write about this process came to me just recently, after some nagging self-doubt wormed its way into my mind:
I can’t compete on Substack with all these talented creators. I’m worried I’ll never write anything worthwhile again…
So what happened next?
Well, two things in particular.
First of all, I caught myself thinking these silly thoughts and told myself to snap out of it immediately. I took a moment to re-read some previous articles and realised: I’m not an impostor, I know what I’m talking about and I’m here to bring value to my readers. If I’ve done it before, I’ll do it again!
Then I cooled off and focused on something else instead. I trusted my process. I knew an idea would arrive. It always had done up until then. And that’s exactly what happened. In bed. Half asleep. Just a small fleeting idea, a passing thought, but I caught the bugger and made sure to write it down, however nonsensical it was.
***
One of my favourite writing anecdotes is that of Gabriel García Márquez. As he was driving his family to Acapulco for a holiday, an idea hit him; an idea so strong he turned the car around and brought his family back home so he could get to work.
He sold the car to finance his project and wrote every single day. It took longer than anticipated and his family was forced to ask for credit from their butcher, baker, and landlord.
18 months later, García Márquez held in his hands the manuscript of one of the most important and influential pieces of Latin American literature: One Hundred Years of Solitude.
This anecdote is even more powerful if you’ve read the book. It’s a beast of a book, a true classic. The story of his 18-month long ordeal props me up in times of self-doubt. It reminds me to trust my process.
***
So what is this magical writing process? I suppose it’s different for every writer but here’s the 5-step method that consistently helps me turn thoughts into articles.
1. Capture
Every single day your eyes, ears, mouth, nose, skin (and whatever your sixth sense may be), are bombarded by a constant barrage of information.
Sometimes you have control over what you feed your senses, other times not. Sometimes these pieces of information can combine and spark an idea in your brain. Capture these thoughts. Write them down. On paper, in your phone, wherever.
Put them somewhere safe where you can come back to later.
2. Organise
Some people are more organised than others. I tend to go for a “controlled chaos” environment.
Basically, I let things percolate and get really, really messy, but always contained within their allocated sandboxes. If I need inspiration, I know which box to look into.
In practise, that means going through my idea captures every now and then, digitising when necessary, and sorting them into their appropriate sandbox. I find that Notion works well for capturing, filtering, and organising data.
3. Collide
This is where the magic happens.
Thoughts collide, like two atoms, creating something entirely new in itself. You’ll begin to sense this tension itching away in your head. It’s almost there and then suddenly: What if I combine thought X with thought Y?
Once again, write this combo down for later, or if time permits, move straight onto the next step.
Stephen King shares a similar philosophy to my collision concept. He sums it up in his own unique way in his memoir On Writing:
“… good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.”
4. Action
When you have a collision, you need to take action as soon as humanly possible, preferably immediately if circumstances permit.
Sometimes the idea is so big and important you’ll need to halt everything and make time, like García Márquez did. This is a wonderful moment when magic’s in the air.
Now just go ahead and write, no matter how messy or poorly structured your first draft is. The sooner you get this collision out onto paper and described in basic words, the higher its chance of survival.
Don’t worry about perfection at this stage. There’ll be plenty of time and space to tidy it up in editing.
As Jodi Picoult, author of 28 novels, once said:
“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”
If you’re new to writing (and by “writing” I mean actually doing this yourself, not back-and-forthing with a chatbot), I’d recommend taking a break at this point. Come back fresh later in the day, or maybe even tomorrow.
5. Structure
We’ve done a great job up to here. We’ve taken separate, intangible ideas out of the ether, merged them, and transmogrified the result into legible text (hopefully). Your goal now is to approach the piece from a more methodical point of view; the content is there, you just need to tidy it up and give it its final structure.
As an organised person who likes to have things done, I probably get the most satisfaction from this final step. Yes, it is magical when two thoughts collide, but bringing the mess into structure is cathartic and rewarding.
This step requires a different mindset altogether, and unless you’re able to switch brain hemispheres at the blink of an eye, a break between writing sessions is the best trigger for a reset (especially with fiction writing).
Once you’re in edit mode, be ruthless with the delete key and try not to sound too smart. And try to go easy on the adjectives and adverbs.
Bringing it all together, we now have a simple 5-step process to turn thoughts into structured content:
Capture
Organise
Collide
Action
Structure
Let’s talk about scale
From a single note to a multimillion-dollar franchise like Harry Potter, it all boils down to having a thought and acting upon it. The process I’ve laid out can be scaled up and down depending on the size of your idea.
A common hurdle many writers face is setting the scale for their content. For example, you may believe you have the next big blockbuster lined up in your head but when pen hits paper (or fingertips hit keyboard), you can barely squeeze out more than a few short chapters.
I think the trick is to start small and see how your idea pans out:
Does your ride shotgun by your side as you progress from post, to thread, to blog and beyond?
Is it exhausted and spent after a short burst of flash fiction?
Does it bid you farewell after one article but promises to revisit once you’ve captured more thoughts?
Once you have a system up and running, stick to it, revisit your ideas often, and get a feel for scale by posting different length content.
Here’s a simple measuring tool to see how your idea scales. If you think it doesn’t have the legs to meet the criteria, simply scale it back a step or two.
Small idea: Tweet
Larger idea: Thread
Even larger idea: Article
Even bigger, larger idea: Series of articles
Next-level bigger idea: You might consider a book!
The more you respect and understand the process, the better you can capture and filter high-quality ideas. Your sensitivity will increase and eventually a contender will rise.
As Victor Hugo remarked:
“Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
One more thought
It’s taken a lot of practise, struggle, and deep introspection to arrive at a place where I can trust my own process.
Feelings of self-doubt can easily block access to your reservoir of ideas and filter out new creative collisions. Letting go of this negativity and allowing yourself to trust in the process liberates you to get back in the flow and produce more work. Bit by bit, the ideas build out and before you know it, you’re editing a real piece of work, enabled by your own trustworthy process.
We all go through our writing struggles, so know that you are not alone in this. I believe in you!
Signing off for now,
Jason