How to Write, in Four Roles
A lot goes into the writing process: brainstorming, researching, writing, revising, editing. You must consider not only content but also voice, format, style, and more.
But I’ll make it simple for you. Read Betty Sue Flowers’ “Madman, Architect, Carpenter, Judge.” Her explanation of the writing process is the best I’ve seen. It’s not only extraordinarily helpful, whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned professional, but also succinct. It’s also immediately actionable.
The four roles
- The madman – enthusiastically spills words onto the page. If you’ve ever tried free-writing, or written stream-of-consciousness style, you’ve experienced the madman.
- The architect – organizes the mess. Picks out what’s important to retain and arranges the content at a paragraph level.
- The carpenter – looks at the piece and rearranges content at a sentence level. Makes sure it flows well, each sentence leading logically to the next.
- The judge – inspects the details and make sure the writing is polished. Checks for issues with grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Flowers, an emeritus professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin, focused her discussion on essays, but these four roles are applicable to any kind of writing.*
She makes the point that getting stuck (commonly called writer’s block) is often the result of a battle between the madman, who wants to just get words down, and the judge, who is looking at the writing with a critical eye.
If you had a boss (and I hope none of you do) who stood over you constantly while you were working, pointing out errors you were making, how successful would you be at your job? I’m guessing not very.
It is however, important to note that the judge is still a very needed role. (As is a boss who makes sure your work is on track.) The key is to separate the roles and let the judge (or the boss) have a turn only at the end of the process.
Getting words on the page
I think of Flowers’ advice and this piece, which I was given in two different classes on teaching writing, regularly.
It’s hard to turn off the inner judge, but once you do and let the madman come out to play, you are much better able to simply get words on paper (or screen)–the first rule of writing. 
This advice also pairs well with my last post about getting creative work done in short bursts. If you only have 15-20 minutes to sit down and work, you don’t have time to do a lot of second-guessing. Allow the madman to work, and then you can let the other roles have their turns later.
Wrong turns and takeouts
One exception to allowing the madman to have free reign, however, would be if you begin feeling your writing is going in a wrong direction. Don’t continue to move forward at that point. Go back to the place where you feel the piece stopped working and make another attempt from there.
I often keep a separate document open when I’m writing, which I call “takeouts,” in which I cut and paste content that I’ve cut out of my piece for one reason or another. It may be that these pieces end up being useful somewhere else, or if I change my mind about direction again, I can add them back in.
It’s rare that I end up using them, but I feel better about tossing content out if I know that I still have it on hand somewhere.
Talk back
So what do you think? Do you think this way of looking at the writing process is helpful? Have you tried it with success, or found that it fell short for some reason? Let me know in the comments.
Photo by Carlos Delgado and licensed via Wikimedia Commons
*(Or editing, for that matter. I think of the architect as the substantive editor, the carpenter as the copyeditor, and the judge as the proofreader.)