You may have heard the quote “write drunk, edit sober”, I think there’s some truth to it (whether or not you drink). Getting those initial symbols down onto the medium is quite challenging, and editing them into something cohesive is even more challenging. But it’s a lot easier when you have a good system for it. Specifically, I use what I call the D-AR-P system (hopefully I’ll figure out a better name at some point).
- D - Dump
- AR - Analyze and reorganize
- P - Polish
Hopefully reading this helps you to write down structured, complex ideas much easier and more clearly.
Intuition
The general idea is that we’re going to minimize the activation energy it takes to start writing, and optimize the energy we spend to get the best written document we can as effortlessly as possible. As with almost anything, you could spend an infinite amount of time making it ever so slightly better and better, but this system attempts to find the elbow of the diminishing returns curve. Ideally, also, you do most of this in a relatively short time period after you’re prepared to write, but you could complete these steps intermittently.
As a primer, the intuition of each step is as follows:
D: In a similar sense to the 15 minute rule, it helps to just get started. When you first begin writing, just dump stuff onto the page. You’ll be surprised once you start how easy it is to open the floodgates and just get ideas down. Crucially, do not worry about how good these ideas are when you first write them.
AR: Just like when remembering things, it’s really useful to write in your own words. Similarly, we’re going to take what we dumped onto the page, re-read it all, think about it, and then organize it. When you re-write it, do not copy paste, open a new window/grab a new piece of paper to the side and write from scratch.
P: Polishing is crucial so that others can read and understand your writing clearly. Note that “others” includes everyone that is not you right now, including yourself a week in the future. So when you think “oh, I understand this”, you won’t in a week unless you polish it (both because you have to think about it more and because it’s easier to understand).
The system
D
The first writing step is just a dump (D). Write everything that somewhat coherently follows an argument or thought you’re trying to think about/convey/write. Fix typos and maybe think about word choices if it’s ambiguous, but don’t focus on what you’ve written, focus on what you haven’t written yet and just try to get as many ideas down as you can.
I find this step is best done in bullet points or a flashcard/canvas-like editor, since it’s largely an unordered list that you’ll need to manipulate later. But, if you’re trying to write a story, writing a really rough linear writing is also a fine idea. If you’re doing this, it’s okay to go back a bit and fill in gaps that you realize you missed, but try to avoid thinking too much about if the flow makes sense, worry about getting to the main point and writing a full draft. You can even write notes to you future self like “I should probably have a sentence before about X” as you’re writing; remember you’ll read this again soon.
In any case, you really just want to put as much (semi-quality) information as you can on the page, even if it ends up not being relevant. Try to have a minimal filter when doing this, don’t pre-edit in your head or on the page.
AR
Once you think you’ve written everything that’s relevant to understanding the subject, move onto the next step: Analyze (A). Re-read everything you’ve written down from a high level. Maybe do some minor editing if you realize something you wrote was wrong or unclear. But mostly, you are looking for patterns or meta ideas that connect the flow of thoughts. This step is in tandem with the other second step: Reorganize (R). As you’re reading all of your ideas, reorganize or reorder them into something that makes more sense. Whatever you do, do not significantly edit the ideas nor delete them. If you find there are some things that are irrelevant, put them towards the bottom but you might find later they’re necessary.
Go back and forth between looking at your ideas at a high level, analyzing, and reordering them to something that makes more sense. You might find that there’s some information missing; if you do, do not be afraid to go back and add more information. Do this until you are happy with the rough presentation of the idea.
P
Now, you should have something that looks like the outline of an argument/presentation. Great! Now the editing is easy, we just have to Polish (P)! In a new editor, open up a blank document side by side with your structured ideas. Now, without copy pasting, write down your document (full, or paragraph by paragraph, whatever you’re editing) top to bottom from scratch. Look often at your structured ideas, you spent a lot of work on them! The reason you shouldn’t copy and paste is because you should be doing a lot of pre-editing at this point. Think carefully about the words you are using to convey ideas, how sentences flow into each other, and how each sentence reflects back to the main idea being presented. Again, if you find that something is missing, do not be afraid to go back one or more steps. Once you get through all of your relevant, structured ideas, you should have a pretty solid document representing the idea.
Polishing is an ongoing step. Re-read your document to edit it and refine it. Make sure your words are clear, your ideas front, and that you do not have superfluous writing. You may find a better connection, feel free to go back and reorganize again. At this point, if you want to restructure, feel free to copy and paste (within reason).
This post was heavily inspired by my friend Jon Danzak