It is easy to imagine, many designers as well as students muttering, “Oh crap! I have to write a short story.” Keep in mind, writers are as mystified by what designers do as designers are of what writers do. Like most mysteries, each is a point of view waiting to be clarified. There are writers and designers who help clarify the mystery surrounding being an author (Rae, 1996; Lamott, 1994; Kooser, 2005) and an author/designer (Edwards, 1999; Simonds, 1961; Conron, 1974). While each speaks to the dedication and perseverance required to be a writer, they also speak to writing as fun. As with design there are various approaches to authoring a narrative. Rae (1996) uses “the movies of the mind.” Lamott (1994) introduces us to the realities of a “shitty first draft.” And, Kooser asks us to “keep in mind that there is somebody on the other end of the communication” (2005, xi)
Who I would recommend reading first, second, or third among Rae, Lamott, and Kooser is a tossup. They are each interesting, fun, and down to earth. Colleen Mariah Rae (1996) let’s her characters take over her thinking. Rae just follows them around taking notesas to what they do, think, and fee. Reminiscent of the Old Radio Days she says, there are times when what they do is so surprising “I almost fall out of my chair laughing.” The beauty of Rae’s approach to writing is that she helps us imagine that “on that ‘screen’ [your mind’s eye] you don’t just see and hear as you would with a regular movie, you taste and touch and smell and slip into the bodies of your characters and see the world through their eyes, touch it with their hands, smell it with their noses” (Rae, 1996, 5). Chasing after and recording the experiences and expectations of your narrative’s characters is, with the help of your peers, worked and reworked a number of times. Each run through helps to further identify and clarify the design participants’ movements, thoughts, expectations, and conclusions with the result being a more complete, cohesive, and comprehensive landscape narrative.
Conron, J. 1974. The American Landscape: A Critical Anthology of Prose and Poetry. New York: Oxford University.
Kooser, Ted. 2005. The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska.
Lamott, A. 1994. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New York: Anchor.
Rae, C. M. 1996. Movies of the Mind: How to Build a Short Story. Santa Fe, NM: Sherman Asher.