Think Like a Writer
Writers make choices about meaning, audience, structure, detail, and voice. The first draft is not the finished thinking.
The Challenge
Write about the moment the lights went out during a storm. You can only use 120 words. How will you make the reader care?
How a Writer Thinks
- Purpose: What do I want the reader to feel, understand, or notice?
- Audience: What does this reader need?
- Selection: Which details matter most?
- Structure: What order creates the strongest effect?
- Language: Which words sound true to the voice and purpose?
- Revision: What can be clearer, sharper, stronger, or more honest?
Your Turn
Choose three details for the storm scene and one detail you will leave out. Explain why those choices serve the reader.
What Did You Notice?
How did the word limit force you to choose? What changed when you thought about the reader instead of only what happened?
💡 Funky Tip
Revision is not punishment for a bad draft. Revision is where writers discover what the piece is really trying to become.
Where Else Could You Use This Thinking?
Emails, speeches, stories, reports, captions, applications, scripts, explanations, and any time words need to carry meaning to another person.
🎒 Take It With You
Purpose → audience → choose → draft → revise.