├── drafts ├── notes.md ├── outline.md └── process.md ├── interviews ├── allen-tan.md ├── casey-gollan.md └── interviews.md ├── readme.md └── resources.md /drafts/notes.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Notes 2 | 3 | * I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s great. 4 | 5 | ## Meta questions 6 | 7 | * What are the intentions of this project? 8 | * What should learners know how to do? 9 | * What questions should learners be able to answer? 10 | * What kinds of activities will show learners how to develop those skills? 11 | * Why does iterative writing matter? 12 | 13 | ## Principles 14 | 15 | * Collaboration 16 | * Curiosity 17 | * Not knowing 18 | * Unfinished, unfolding universe 19 | * Inherent value in information and experience 20 | * Shedding ideas is part of learning 21 | * Design is a process of articulation 22 | 23 | ## Shape 24 | 25 | * Small posts 26 | * Incremental changes, including additions, deletions, and editing (refactoring ideas) 27 | * Fiddling leads to larger ideas and more stable chunks, cards, or pages of ideas 28 | * Something like an essay that keeps going 29 | 30 | ## Personal stories 31 | 32 | * LiveJournal, Twitter, and Tumblr 33 | * Developers 34 | 35 | ## Past posts 36 | 37 | * [Baby Steps to Better Product Content](http://www.swellcontent.com/2012/02/baby-steps-to-better-product-content/) 38 | * [Dreaming of Writing in Space](http://www.swellcontent.com/2012/12/dreaming-of-writing-in-space/) 39 | * [Editing the Past](http://www.swellcontent.com/2013/02/editing-the-past/) 40 | * [Working on Content with Developers](http://www.swellcontent.com/2012/04/working-with-developers/) 41 | * [Working with Content in Waves](http://www.swellcontent.com/2011/06/working-with-content-in-waves/) 42 | 43 | ## Resources 44 | 45 | * [Fork-N-Go](http://jlord.github.io/forkngo/) 46 | * [Hyde](http://hyde.getpoole.com) 47 | * [Jekyll](http://jekyllrb.com/docs/quickstart/) 48 | * [Purl](http://p2pu.github.io/jekyll-course-experiment/) 49 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /drafts/outline.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Outline 2 | 3 | ## Introduction 4 | 5 | * What is iterative writing? 6 | * How is it different than regular old writing? 7 | * History v hypertext 8 | 9 | * Why write iteratively? 10 | * Why not call it “agile content?” 11 | * Who can benefit from this approach? 12 | 13 | * Editing v iterating 14 | 15 | ## Principles 16 | 17 | * Practice over theory 18 | * Collaboration over expertise 19 | * Learning over education 20 | * Flexibility over scalability 21 | 22 | ## Process 23 | 24 | * Describe the various steps of the process. 25 | * What is an iteration? 26 | * Dealing with drafts. 27 | * Where does writing happen? 28 | * Working with contributors. 29 | * When is it finished? 30 | 31 | ## Resources 32 | 33 | * Tools 34 | * Further Reading 35 | * Glossary 36 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /drafts/process.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Process 2 | 3 | ## Writing in private 4 | 5 | Do the work and share it after it’s polished. 6 | 7 | 1. Wait for inspiration to strike. 8 | 2. Do some research. 9 | 3. Take notes. 10 | 4. Make an outline. 11 | 5. Think and think and think. 12 | 6. Change the outline. 13 | 7. Write a rough draft. 14 | 8. Revise. 15 | 9. Proofread. 16 | 10. Publish. 17 | 18 | Never touch the piece again, unless someone finds an embarassing error in it. 19 | 20 | ## Writing in public 21 | 22 | Share the work as you go. No map necessary. 23 | 24 | * Embrace the mess. Work in public despite your fear of looking foolish. 25 | * Pay attention and take notes. Everything is an idea. 26 | * Sync whenever you save. 27 | * Assume things will make sense. Assume things will change. 28 | * Think about why you care. Write that down too. 29 | * Cut things when you feel like it. Fiddle. 30 | * Find the patterns. Move things around. Add contrast. 31 | * Invite other people to contribute. Listen to their ideas. Let them change things. 32 | * Keep working toward the truth. 33 | * Reread the work. Check your tone. 34 | * Fix typos. Keep going. 35 | * Gather possible paths and links. Publish those too. 36 | * Change your mind. Learn something new. Put that in there. 37 | * This never really ends, unless you want it to. 38 | 39 | ## Editing 40 | 41 | Similar goals: 42 | 43 | * Be clear. 44 | * Be concise. 45 | * Use simple words. 46 | * Organize the information as you go. 47 | * Trust the reader. 48 | * Make useful connections. 49 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /interviews/allen-tan.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Allen Tan 2 | 3 | N: Hey Allen! I’m curious about the relationship between writing and learning iteratively. I guess you could say this project is about Git too. Feel free to change the questions, or rearrange them. We’ll probably go back and forth 1–2 times in editing. Thanks! 4 | 5 | A: Hi! 6 | 7 | ## When did you first start writing on the web? 8 | 9 | I think it was sometime in middle school. I had a Xanga and a Livejournal that were both set to private. (Well, they had a couple public posts to not raise suspicion but all the real content was private.) I wrote everything in Windows Notepad because I didn’t trust the web editor not to crash. God, that was terrible. 10 | 11 | ## When did you learn to use Git? Why? 12 | 13 | I learned Git when I started working at Crush + Lovely. I was designing but also doing the markup and css, so I had to jump right into working on a team. At the time I only knew the bare minimum: pull, push, add, commit, and I learned typing into the command line based on what my coworkers told me over IM. (This is still how I learn to do things in Git.) 14 | 15 | ## Has Git influenced your writing process? How? 16 | 17 | I wouldn’t say Git specifically, but the idea of versioning helps with not being afraid to rewrite – you can always go back and see what you had before. 18 | 19 | I think Git isn’t suited for anything more fine-grained than that, for me. It involves lots of swapping (of words, phrases, sentences) and reordering/restructuring, which doesn’t map neatly to Git’s model of lines. 20 | 21 | ## Where do you do most of your writing? What other tools or tricks are involved? 22 | 23 | I like iA Writer! I like Pages! I have paper pads that are tall and just wide enough for jotting a single column of bullet points. I dislike Google Docs but it’s better than emailing other people my drafts like a barbarian. 24 | 25 | I learned recently to take lots of breaks. This was pretty huge for me, because before that I would just sit and stare and get frustrated. It never occurred to me to stop and go do something else for a bit, to lull your brain into loosening up. 26 | 27 | I pace a lot. For a while I had a wireless keyboard hooked up to my iPhone because I can sit on the floor or lie down while writing, which was weird enough to trick myself into not thinking it was work. Windows and sunlight is helpful. Music is not. 28 | 29 | ## Describe your process for me. How do you know when something is ready to publish? When is it done? 30 | 31 | How it begins varies a lot. Sometimes I work on little bits and fragments – putting together sentences that I like, jotting down comments on research – and then try to sew it up into some coherent order. It can take a while before I have enough pieces for a piece, and I have lots of orphans lying around waiting to be used. Other times I know exactly how a piece needs to go, I don’t really use outlines to map out structure but I see it in my head, and I just need to get it down. 32 | 33 | Then I let drafts sit for a couple of days before looking at it. Sometimes I’ll share it privately with friends, especially if I know it’ll be something they have strong opinions about. That can be a great sanity-check: am I actually saying something that needs to be said? Does it make sense? 34 | 35 | Once it gets out of its weird larval mutating alien phase, then I start doing passes to clean it up: swapping out words, rephrasing sentences, fixing grammar problems, removing extraneous parts. This is my favorite part of writing, it’s almost meditative to go through it over and over with a comb and shift letters around. 36 | 37 | It’s done when I stop wanting to change it, I guess! When I put it up online and see the words in the layout, I can spot a lot of problems. When I fix them, it’s probably ready. 38 | 39 | ## How do you decide when to work in public? 40 | 41 | Usually because someone asks, or because I’m working on a draft that I think a person in particular would appreciate. (And/or if there’s someone I can get line notes from.) But I’ve usually thought about the piece for a while at that point. 42 | 43 | I have no idea how people start from scratch in public. These are the same people who do improv. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /interviews/casey-gollan.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Casey Gollan 2 | 3 | Hello, Casey! I’m curious about the relationship between writing and learning iteratively. I guess you could say this project is about Git too. Feel free to change the questions, or rearrange them. We’ll probably go back and forth 1–2 times in editing. Thanks! 4 | 5 | ## When did you first start writing on the web? 6 | 7 | ## When did you learn to use Git? Why? 8 | 9 | ## Has Git influenced your writing process? How? 10 | 11 | ## Where do you do most of your writing? What other tools or tricks are involved? 12 | 13 | ## Describe your process for me. How do you know when something is ready to publish? When is it done? 14 | 15 | ## How do you decide when to work in public? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /interviews/interviews.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Interviews 2 | 3 | ## Questions 4 | 5 | Make a Markdown file with these questions. Use your name as the title and send it back as a pull request. You can edit the questions too. Have fun with it. 6 | 7 | * When did you first start writing on the web? 8 | * When did you learn to use Git? Why? 9 | * Has Git influenced your writing process? How? 10 | * Where do you do most of your writing? What other tools or tricks are involved? 11 | * Describe your process for me. How do you know when something is ready to publish? When is it done? 12 | * How do you decide when to work in public? 13 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /readme.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Iterative Writing 2 | 3 | ## Introduction 4 | 5 | This is the beginning of an online resource for people who write iteratively. I’m not sure what it will be yet, but that’s the magic of working in the open air. This project is written in [Markdown](http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/basics), and will eventually have a website of some sort. 6 | 7 | ## Contact 8 | 9 | Nicole Fenton, [@nicoleslaw](http://twitter.com/nicoleslaw) 10 | 11 | If you’re interested in contributing an interview or want to see something added, feel free to send me a pull request or [open an issue](https://github.com/nicoleslaw/iterative-writing/issues). You can also email me: nicole at swellcontent.com. 12 | 13 | ## Contributors 14 | 15 | Thanks to friends who shared [links and resources](https://twitter.com/nicoleslaw/status/496652576717549568). 16 | 17 | ## License 18 | 19 | TBD 20 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /resources.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Resources 2 | 3 | ## Further reading 4 | 5 | * [Deploy](http://aworkinglibrary.com/writing/deploy/), Mandy Brown 6 | * [Working in Public](http://chriscoyier.net/2012/09/23/working-in-public/), Chris Coyier 7 | * [Designing in the Open](http://bradfrostweb.com/blog/post/designing-in-the-open/), Brad Frost 8 | * [Unfinished](http://robertogreco.tumblr.com/post/6839277872/unfinished-brian-eno-and-konrad-glogowski), Roberto Greco 9 | * [Launch and Iterate](http://text-patterns.thenewatlantis.com/2014/02/launch-and-iterate.html), Alan Jacobs 10 | * [Belief and Technique for Modern Prose](http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/kerouac-technique.html), Jack Kerouac 11 | * [Show Your Work](http://austinkleon.com/show-your-work/), Austin Kleon 12 | * [Reading is Fundamental Kickoff](http://danielmall.com/articles/rif-kickoff/), Dan Mall 13 | * [Working in Public from Day 1](http://18fblog.tumblr.com/post/93415834296/working-in-public-from-day-1), Eric Mill 14 | * [The Cathedral and The Bazaar](http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/), Eric S. Raymond 15 | * [The Art of Working in Public](http://snarkmarket.com/2011/7189), Robin Sloan 16 | * [Barriers to Scholarship and Iterative Writing](http://www.scottbot.net/HIAL/?p=40622), Scott Weingart 17 | * [Interview with David Shields](http://logger.believermag.com/post/48351697731/i-hadnt-yet-found-the-form-that-released-my-best), *The Believer* 18 | 19 | ## Markdown editors 20 | 21 | * [Byword](http://bywordapp.com) 22 | * [Dillinger](http://dillinger.io) 23 | * [Draft](https://draftin.com) 24 | * [iA Writer](http://www.iawriter.com) 25 | * [Markable](http://markable.in) 26 | * [Atom](https://atom.io) 27 | 28 | ## On community 29 | 30 | * [Community Design 101](http://howto.p2pu.org) 31 | * [Purl](http://p2pu.github.io/jekyll-course-experiment/) 32 | * [Argo Project](http://argoproject.org) 33 | * [Project Argo Field Report](http://contentsmagazine.com/articles/field-report-project-argo/), *Contents* Magazine 34 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------