I see a man on a corner. He’s waving at something. The building that used to be there next to him is demolished. The intersection looks barren.
This is what came to me during my writing session. I was writing to see if something would strike me. To keep me writing. Getting words on the page. See how far I can go. How long I will be able to write.
That’s the thing about writing. You have to get all the ideas out and not worry about the spelling. Not worry you’re making no sense. It can all be fixed with the click of a button. Literally. All the spelling corrected.
Words may be mixed a bit but they’re out there and they’re captured on the page. Keep writing. The feeling of flow will take over and you’ll start stream of consciousness writing.
All the words you think. All the sentences that go through your head will go to the fingers. What you think goes to the page. Get it on the page. And keep going. Don’t stop for anything.
If you stop typing you’ve stopped thinking. And you would be dead, because there is a constant monologue in our heads. It never turns off. There are always thoughts so there is no such thing as writers block.
It’s not possible because we’re always thinking. There is a voice in our head that continues no matter what we do. Listen to that voice and get those words to your fingers.
I have found that closing my eyes is the only way I can make this happen. Close your eyes and type. If you have to look at the keyboard to type. Learn to type. If you have not learned by this point in your life it’s time you start. Learn how to type.
Get to the point were you can type without looking, type without seeing the words on the page. It’s all about flow. Just write. Write and write.
As architects, as humans, we have so many ideas. So many opinions on things. Things we should do. Things we want our clients to do. We need to communicate our designs to others. Your designs can be served by writing.
Writing will free the ideas stuck inside your head. You have to let those out. Get the ideas out, so you can free up the space for more creative ideas. Ideas that spark design. The ones that allow you to be creative. Writing feeds the creative side in you. It will make you more creative.
Writing and building a writing habit will solidify your thoughts. You will be able to clear an ideas, set a course forward and take action.
What do I mean by that? Take action? The reason you are procrastinating on your projects is because you don’t have a clear picture. You don’t have a direction. You have not cleared your mind of all the distractions.
Writing will clear the distractions from your mind. It will eliminate procrastination and allow you to take action. Ideas create action and Action creates ideas.
When you sit down to write. You create ideas. If you form this into a habit you’ll start to see you have much more in your head than you thought. No pun intended.
You don’t know what you have to say. You will never know what you have to say unless you write it out. It’s what sparks your ideas. As Sean Mccabe says “Don’t sit down to write what it is you have to say. Write to find out what you have to say.”
I messed that quote up the first time I was writing it out. But instead of stopping and searching the web, getting distracted, trying to get back to writing. then eventually get it correct.
I literally wrote. Something like that. I will get it right in the edit.
That’s the second part to writing. There are two parts. You write then you edit. Too many of you write and edit, write delete edit delete as you write. This is all wrong and needs to be corrected.
I wish so much I had a writing course in college that would have taught me there were two parts to writing. I always tried to write a perfect paper immediately. Write a sentence then edit. It was terrible.
It takes forever for one. Then you lose your idea by the time you get back into writing mode. If I would have known I could write a stream of consciousness. Edit it later. I would have been much more successful writing all those papers. I would’ve been able to communicate more effectively. If you’re still in college.
Congratulations.
You are learning this technique early. It will change you forever. Write without editing. What does this mean. It means no backspace. No correcting. Move on to the next word.
I believe in this so much that I don’t look at what I’m writing as I write. It’s too distracting to my stream of consciousness. I find I better to write. I don’t let the spelling or the fact that I typed the wrong word get to me. I just go.
If I want to put a particular phrase out there and I mistyped it, I will write it again. I will type the same sentence twice. It’s ok. You’re not going to end the writing session and hit publish. You go back and edit. It’s part of the process. And necessary.
For now, get all your ideas out and onto the page. I suggest typing. Learn to type fast if you don’t already. Soon after forming a writing habit you’ll be able to type as fast as you think. And that of course will be with some misspelled words. It’s part of it, remember. Get it out.
Don’t let the words that come out wrong direct your thinking. This is why I write with my eyes closed. It allows me to focus on my thoughts and not what I have written. Focus on your thoughts.
That’s what’s important right now, not editing. Get those thoughts out and you’ll thank yourself later. It’ll take some practice. Keep going and eventually you’ll have a writing habit.
Each morning I go downstairs before everyone has woken up and I write. Most times it’s only four hundred or so words but today I pushed myself to go further. I actually shifted the topic during the writing session. I was going to be writing about juxtaposition and other archi-speak but transistioned into writing about writing.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. Our minds are complicated things. They will wander or shift focus sometimes. It’s ok. Let them go in the direction they want. You never know how your mind will wrap it all up in the end. It’s how we process ideas.
Start writing. It’ll help your career and allow you to focus on your ideas. Formulate opinions and direct your success as an Architect.
People that don’t write are lost in the world. Drifting aimlessly without meaning or purpose. I know that sounded harsh. I’m speaking to myself. Again. What Sean said connected it all together. “You don’t write because you have something to say. You write to find out what you have to say.”
Start writing. I want to know what you have to say.
