Avoiding that "Untitled document" feeling in Google Docs
A good collaborative writing process should never leave anyone unsure of what they need to write next
You know that feeling when you're staring at a brand-new Google Doc, and it's completely white except for the blinking cursor in the upper left?
Sometimes this blankness is an open field of possibility, but more often than not, it's stress-inducing.
For individual writers, it can lead to writer’s block. Or it can lead to a desperate banging away at the keyboard in hopes that something good will come out.Â
I’ve been struggling with the latter response this week as I’ve been working on some personal writing projects. I don’t know exactly what I want to say, yet, but I’m putting a lot of different things onto the page. Maybe some of them will work out, but probably most will just go into the scrapyard.
This can feel good, in a perverse sort of way, if you’re a solo writer and it’s part of your creative process. But if you’re part of a team tasked with producing content, creative angst isn’t going to be a healthy addition to the team dynamic.
That's why a good collaborative writing process is all about avoiding the blank page.Â
I don’t want anyone on my team to be facing an impassively blinking cursor, not knowing how to get started. At every step of the way, everyone should have something to start with: an outline, an assignment brief, or just an email from a client asking if we could write something for them. …
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Thanks again for your good suggestions. Personally, I am a believer in a solid style book, whether it is the Associated Press style book or Strunk and White, which also helps you think about what you are pecking away at. Individual writers should take responsibility for what they do. That includes the mundane: spelling, grammar and so forth. If individual writers can't take care of that, who is supposed to? The issue once came up at a Spanish language newspaper in Mexico. A reporter there was a repeat offender involving diactrical marks such as accent marks and so forth, which are common in Spanish. His editor finally told him he would be fired if he did not include the necessary diacritical marks in his copy. The next story he filed contained an extra, separate page, larded with hundreds of diacritical marks. I never did learn whether he was fired.
I did hear it from a co-worker who witnessed it. I have known a number of reporters who behaved in a similar fashion right here in the US of A.