Some of my creative writing and editing process

I recently finished a book and a video course on sustainability leadership. Writing means editing. Any creative, expressive work means sketching ideas, composing, outlining, etc. Any creative, expressive work emerges from copious practice work—any painting, musical piece, novel, poem, etc. You’ve seen sketches by da Vinci, Michelangelo, and so on.

I don’t keep a writer’s or artist’s notebook. I don’t start by writing on a computer. I start by writing on the backs of scrap paper. I don’t write haphazardly, though it probably looks that way since I tend to use every part of the page. I don’t have to avoid wasting paper since I live in a culture with more waste paper I can use before recycling it. I need only go to my building’s mail room where I can pick from insane amounts of junk mail people dispose of (I’ve nearly ended mine by calling and emailing all the sources until I get nearly none).

Finishing the video course, I don’t know why but I felt like sharing what my notes look like. I don’t know if people will see them as crazy looking, methodical, or what, but I find them essential. Uploading them seems to have randomized their order, so good luck figuring out what went where. I doubt anyone besides me would care to parse any of them, but since I know what to look for, I can trace the development of the videos. When I started, I intend to make one short video. All the work you see below shows how small elements required attention and development that led that video to become longer, then split into others. For a while it kept getting more complex, then an underlying order emerged and each video clarified, as did the whole composition.

As I processed more ideas, I’d cross out old ones. When I incorporated ideas into the slides, I’d cross them out too, or put big check marks over them, so I knew what I’d done.

Anyway, I doubt any of you will want to parse any of them, but you might enjoy seeing what goes into my writing and what it looks like. Here’s a typical page: