Lessons in writing: Tools, techniques, methods for writing

There are a lot of writing tools, methods, books, and in general help on the Internet. The Online Writing Laboratory at Purdue is linked to by many schools as it so helpful. But, this little post isn’t about that. It is my attempt to explain how I write as even though I am not a “good” writer I am prolific and can write in real time. My fellow faculty have sat in a meeting tossing ideas at me, watching on a projector screen as I write rapidly (I can type at about 70 words a minute sometimes more). So I wanted to lay out some of the tools that I use to accomplish that kind of output. Use what you can and toss the rest.

First, I write on a fifteen inch Macbook Pro with lots of RAM, and a very comfortable keyboard layout. The operating system though limited in some ways by the utilities I can find is stable, sustainable, and supports writing. Key features like Spotlight, and the finder tools make finding that strange pdf copied article easy. When writing on my Dell Inspiron with Windows XP on more than one occasion I had a blue screen of death (BSOD) that wiped out hours of work. Sammy makes like Jesus and saves, but a wiped word document still cannot be recovered. The MacBook Pro lit keyboard helps in conferences when the lights go down, and are more ambient in nature than the keyboard light on my old IBM Thinkpad. And, for those who look at Apple hardware and wonder about the one button mouse. Do not worry it took all of 3 hours to get used to it and the strange thing is the “Jobs” way is actually better than a multi-function mouse.

If you are going to write you need a fast word processor with instant edit functions and rapid self-correction. More importantly the word processor needs to be customizable and support extensions. Currently I am using Word 2004 (analogous to Word 2003 on Windows), and will soon be moving to Word 2008 (analogous to Word 2007 on Windows). I can customize the tool bars, and the common buttons I use for my work path. I really like Apple Pages, but other tools do not integrate with it and that makes it a non-player for hard core writing. The instant replace function in word means I can automatically fix the “teh” problem. The template functions, the integration with other vendors tools, and the speed of Word make it a very clean and easy to use tool. Unfortunately when you copy and paste into a blog it carries the “MSO” information rather than standardized HTML or free text. Pages from Apple does it correctly. In WordPress though version 2.6 introduced a “paste from word” button that supposedly fixes the “MSO” problem.

Integration with Word is a big deal. I keep project based EndNote libraries. EndNote by Thomson is a citation database tool. Citations information, notes, and extended abstracts can be entered. Then by selecting a citation style EndNote produces the base citation instantly in the correct format (or customized). While typing in Microsoft Word the writer can select a citation in EndNote, click on a button in word, and the correctly cited text citation is dropped into the text, and the bibliographical citation is dropped in correct order at the end of the written work. If writing in APA 5 format the writer can ctrl-click on the citation entry, and add the required page numbers without disturbing any of the other citations.

Currently I print out all journal articles I am using and I like to buy books rather than download them via pdf or other electronic methods like Amazon Kindle. The reason at this point is the tool I had been using failed. Most of the problems that caused the original failure are fixed so for reading and editing pdf libraries I am starting to use a new application. Some of this functionality is actually built into the preview tool of OS X so the application has to add additional features to be worthwhile, and what they is pretty slick. The tool I use for annotating pdf papers and keeping track of research notes is Papers. It is a sort of iTunes for pdfs. You can add them to the library, edit, highlight, keep notes, and even supposedly link to the EndNote files. The nice thing though is it allows me to write, find what I am looking for, and most importantly be productive. Like I mentioned earlier Papers recently wiped out one of my libraries when I did an update. I’m hoping the issue is fixed as I really liked the tool.

Scrivener is another application I have bought for writing a new book. Scrivener uses the screen writer method with 3X5 like cards, and post it notes, that are on the screen. Very much a familiar way of doing work. I have not used Scrivener for working on an academic paper or finished a project in it yet, but for the creative process it seems to work quite nicely. Keep tuned in for further updates as the book I am working on (fiction) comes to fruition.

Another high value tool for me is OmniGraffle. I use it instead of Visio for working with images and creating graphics and other art for blog posts and papers. It is intuitive and allows for different highly customizable export options. Visio would be the analogous tool on Microsoft Windows, but OmniGraffle is very slick and easy to use quickly. I don’t feel like I have to be a power user to be productive. There is a new version of OmniGraffle and I have not paid for the upgrade. I just can’t see why with how great the original application works.

Finally a word about Pages. When I post this little gem of a story on my WordPress blog I will copy the text to Pages, then copy from there to the blog. More habit than a requirement I know that Pages is HTML W3C compliant. Word is not. Pages is a great tool for quick and dirty writing and it produces some really great artwork pages. Pages almost fulfils the role that the old Microsoft Publisher fulfilled for me.

As to the writing itself I use a structured topic based outline structure. I write a bones outline with the sections according to the audience or standard of the publisher. I then take the bones and add questions or statements that are germane to all writing and anything specifically about the discipline. I take my research that I have done and I put the quotes and citations down on the page. At this point I usually start challenging the assumptions in my research question and refining. I construct a literature review with my quotes, statements, citations, and assertions. I fill in any gaps (which there are many) and prepare a methodology section or analysis section based on my findings. I usually keep a second word processor document open as I am writing to keep track of questions, notes on authors, books cited that I didn’t get the first time, and other things.

When I would work on any of my hot rods or my Jeep the bodywork was king of the task list. You would do preparation for paint, more bodywork, more preparation, then more preparation for a while again. Writing is about the research. More research. I like having the most thorough literature review that is possible. I consider it part of craftsmanship. Citing all of the work of people who have gone down the same path just makes the new work that I am doing stand out even more.  The tools of writing quickly and with precision are a great mind and excellent tools. I have been able to buy the tools, but the mind is a case of nature. Good writing takes hard work. Bad writing takes hard work too, but nobody notices except to say better luck next time. Good authors do not need luck.