Being in academics has changed my writing process. Two of the biggest things I discovered: Slides shows are a really good way to outline. And I need more feedback than I realize.

So I have developed the ultimate writing process that will streamline your process and stop you from wasting time. I learned this while developing academic papers and dissertation chapters, but it would work for about anything you want to write and publish.

First, you write an abstract/summary/blurb. The summary should be about 250 words that really boils down the main point of what you are doing.

Second, you create a slide presentation. This presentation builds the outline of what you are writing. (If anyone wants, I can go more into how I outline with slide shows. Let me know in the comments.)

Third, you write a draft. This draft is just trying to figure out overall structure, going off of the slide presentation. Do not worry about the small details, because you’ll probably have to change the overall structure.

Fourth, you edit and revise. Revise until you feel good about the overall structure and then keep revising and revising. You might have to rearrange things a few times. You can go back and change that slide presentation after writing a draft to update the outline. Eventually, you’ll worry about paragraphs and sentences, but that should be quite a long way into the process.

But I’ve left out the most important part: get feedback from others at every single step.

You get feedback from the short summary first, to see if the general idea makes sense and is interesting. Then when you have a presentation for an outline, you can present it for people and get their thoughts. You should get feedback even before you start writing a draft. Yes, really.

Then you get feedback after different drafts. You let people know what stage you are at and what you need feedback on. When I’m sending a draft that is just trying to figure out the big picture, I don’t want feedback on paragraph and sentence issues.

I think previously, I would want this finished project before I gave it to anyone for feedback. But that’s a waste of time: what if the whole project is misguided or boring? Then I’ve spent all this time working and working for something that is fatally flawed.

Everyone needs feedback on their writing. It’s scary and it’s hard, but it’s actually a lot easier if you get it in the beginning stages, in those rough bits, then if you wait until you care too much about the project to throw it in the trash.

I learned this structure from being in academics, as this is how scholars write papers for journals (particularly in philosophy). You get an idea, you write an abstract, and you submit it to a conference for review. You present it at the conference. You get feedback from the presentation. Then you work that presentation into a draft and send it to some collogues. Finally, send it to a journal for publication, where it has a whole other round of reviewing and feedback.

But it works for other types of writing as well. Before I start writing a novel or short story or poem or essay or whatever, I can get feedback on the ideas and a basic outline. Maybe that seems strange–but it would make our writing a whole lot better! We are always writing to an audience, so an audience should be there at every step in the process.

I recently read a novel and there was this fatal issue with the plot: a gaping, ugly plot hole that distracted from the good things of the book. And the author could have fixed that if she had presented an outline of the novel to others before she had gotten down to writing it.

Now, we won’t always follow this process, particularly for short things that don’t matter too much. I don’t do this for blog posts–but my blog posts would be better if I did! And sometimes we can write a rough draft and then go through this process to improve that draft. I think I’m going to do that with this blog post: write the short summary, do a presentation, and see where it takes me.

If we are writing something that we want to publish for an audience, I think this process is essential.

Who is giving us all this feedback? Writing friends. Other friends. Family members. Internet people. Advisors. Mentors. Co-workers. I know it is hard to ask for feedback, but people can say no if they don’t want to. Really, we’re scared to ask for feedback mostly because of our own insecurities and fear, not because people aren’t willing and able to help us.

Would this process be something you are willing to try?