Recently on The Writing Resource, I shared two very different writing processes, mine and my husband’s, in the “One House, Two Writing Processes” series. A third member of the Brenner household, our son Sean, is also a writer and has developed his own writing process. I’ve invited him to write about it here. —EB
In the previous two parts of this series, my parents shared their contrasting approaches to writing—my mother’s methodical editor’s process and my father’s “bull in a writing shop” journalism style.
My work is a bit less conventional than what my parents do. I primarily write video essays, creating scripts that will be narrated over footage or relevant images and published online by my clients. The video essay isn’t a new writing format—it’s just ordinary essay-writing with the occasional “stage direction” for the narrator and video editor—but it exists in a relatively new context with its own standards and demands.
My writing process has developed within this context and provides a good example of how the type of writing you do affects your writing process. Here’s how I write.
Finding and Testing Ideas
Writing has to start with an idea. Much like my parents, I find that anything can spark an idea for a piece of writing, and when the spark happens, I scramble to write it down before I forget it.
While their ideas typically develop into traditional articles or blog posts, mine face a unique first test: Will this make a compelling video title?
When I started working for my current anchor client, I would often be assigned ideas to turn into completed scripts, skipping this first step. Nowadays, I come up with the bulk of the ideas, but I have to pitch them to the client first, and then we brainstorm them together.
Before I send my ideas to my client, though, I draft a title for the finished video. This helps determine whether the video is worth making. As much as I view my work as art, the goal is still to create a video that people will watch and that will make the client money. How compelling a title I can come up with helps me predict whether the video will perform well.
If an idea passes this test, I send the draft title to my client to approve. My anchor client and I typically discuss and brainstorm dozens of ideas during a quarterly call, giving me a long list of ideas to work with over the course of the next few months.
On top of determining the viability of a particular idea, drafting a title helps me flesh out the idea in my mind, generating key points that will become the backbone of my script later on.
Gathering Sources and Building an Outline
Once the client has approved an idea and a title, I move on to research, which can differ wildly depending on what I’m writing. I write about Star Wars lore for my anchor client, and because I know perhaps too much Star Wars lore off the top of my head, I can often skip the research phase when writing for that client. Instead, I’ll double-check specifics as I’m writing and perform a more thorough fact check at the end.
Even when it isn’t strictly necessary, I prefer to start with some research to immerse myself in the topic and generate more ideas that will develop my thesis. When research is a necessity, it plays a crucial role in my process.
As I move through a source, I’m alert for passages that could support my thesis, copying those passages down in Google Docs as I go. I dump them in the same document that I will later write the essay in. This helps defeat the blank page, making it easier to start writing later on. By the time I’ve reviewed all my sources, I have a wealth of material to transform into quotes, which is the next step of my process.
While my mother meticulously gathers more information than she needs and my father draws heavily from interviews and reporting, my research focuses on finding quotable material that will give authority to my scripts.
After gathering sufficient source material, I incorporate quotes into complete sentences or trim them into usable block quotes, depending on length, cutting out what I don’t need and reconciling the source material with my writing voice. Because I write video scripts, I can also incorporate short clips of source video in the same manner as block quotes.
Next, I use the quotes and clips to build a basic outline for my essay. This is less of a traditional outline and more of a way to help me see how different ideas and concepts fit together. I rearrange the quoted material into the order it’ll appear in the finished essay. I may also write sub-theses or video chapter titles (which serve a similar purpose for me) as I go.
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Writing the Script: One and Done
From there, writing the essay just becomes a matter of filling in the blank spaces between the thesis and the source material, both literally and figuratively. Shaping my arguments around my evidence has two key effects on the finished essay: It helps me create a more grounded, well-supported argument, and it injects authority into the essay.
Most people above a certain age will take a YouTube video much less seriously than a book (for good reason, in fairness), which creates a bit of an uphill battle to get my work taken seriously. That’s an easier battle to win when my work is in lockstep with a recognized, authoritative source that I quote.
When I’m not working with quoted source material, I skip the outline stage and jump right to writing. I’m often working from a bare-bones mental outline when I do this, but occasionally I’ll just write and see where I end up, which has worked surprisingly well for me in the past.
Even when I’m working with an outline or quoted material, writing is a very natural, stream-of-consciousness process for me. Like my father, I “go for the kill” when I write, treating my first draft as my final draft, and I do a lot of my revision as I go.
Unlike a lot of writers I’ve spoken to, I usually write in order, beginning with the first sentence of the introduction and ending with the last sentence of the conclusion. This isn’t a hard-and-fast rule; I’ll break it for various reasons. Writing out of order doesn’t make the task any easier or harder for me, as far as I’ve noticed.
By the time the smoke clears and the essay’s finished, my work is mostly done. I refine as I go, so my formal revision process is very minimal. Most of it is just tweaking and scanning for errors, and it usually doesn’t take very long.
I’ve also borrowed my mother’s technique of revisiting the previous day’s work before writing something new. This hybrid approach works perfectly for video scripts, where flow and pacing are crucial. It also helps me get back into the flow of that particular piece.
Once the whole essay is complete, I will do a final revision, which is mostly just making sure the piece is structured well and flows properly.
Make Your Process Work for You
Everyone’s writing process is different, shaped by the way our minds work and the kind of work we do. My method draws a bit from both my parents, but in other ways it’s unique, influenced by the work I do and my idiosyncrasies. It’s an expression of the way I think as much as a tool I use in my work, much like writing itself.
As your writing process develops, don’t be afraid to try things that seem nonstandard. There’s no one right way to write, and there are plenty of unique niches your specific style of writing could be suited to.
Sean Brenner is a freelance writer specializing in scripts for video essays and similar content. He writes scripts for YouTube videos covering Star Wars and Star Trek lore for Frontier Media.
