The workflow for Writing and Research has changed a bit, to make it easier on my hands, and facilitate how I’m getting stuff done.
Steps:
- Abstract
- Outline
- Spoken Word
- Transcript
- Additional research
- Iterate through 3-5 until complete
- Final Transcript
- Add bibliography
- Publish
(1) Abstract: Usually when I have the gem (or germ?) of an idea I’ll have a few sentences formed in my head about the topic, the questions I’m asking, the point I want to prove, or what the inspiration was. The “abstract” is the attempt to pin down this shower thought, muse, dash of inspiration, or what have you, before it flits away. This isn’t quite the same as a formal academic abstract, but it could be expanded into one if necessary, so I find it helpful to jot this down to start.
(2) Outline: (Sometimes done in conjunction with (1) above), in that I’ll have more than a couple sentences, and I can kind think of some of the major elements, and how I might structure the argument or lesson or discussion or whatever. Lay this out in plain text, and just use tabs and dashes or markdown or whatever to provide a minimal structure.
Note: this, and pretty much all of it is in text, either notepad or markdown, or perhaps handwritten and then typed in.
(3) Spoken Word: Talk it out. This is how the podcast episodes usually start, in that the intro might be the abstract, and just walk through the outline until I’ve exhausted the idea.
The above is pretty much how the podcast episodes get started. From there, we iterate through.
(4) Transcript: Run everything recorded so far through Descript. (That’s what I’m using, but any transcription method would be fine.) From there, export or “Publish” to a word or text document, after cleaning up (if it’s really bad).
(5) Additional Research: This is when I (go back) to the books. Initially, I’ll usually have a good idea of where the research is coming from, and this gets incorporated into the Abstract or Outline stage. So there is some research done initially, but this is the stage where I fact check myself, and start looking for material that I have, or possibly for material that I might need to get.
Putting this here helps prevent getting lost in the weeds early, and allows for the project to get to that initial stage.
It doesn’t always work, but I’ve found it helps.
Also, by talking it through early (stage 3, above), and using the transcription, it’s easier than trying to script everything ahead of time. (And I’m using “script” interchangeably with Write here; it could work for either.)
(6) Iterate 3-5: Lather, rinse, repeat as necessary.
(7) Final transcript: Once the final version is recorded and checked, run it through Descript as a new version, and edit the text within the app. I find it a little time consuming, so this is why it only gets done once here, as this is used for published transcripts and subtitle files to go along with audio and video, or a final version for print.
(8) Bibliography: I use Zotero, which has a plugin for Word, and can incorporate the references at this stage.
(9) Publish: We’re done! It’s all over except for finding the typos.