How I Design the New-Look Sunday Supplement
I’ve had a couple of questions recently about how I design our new-look Sunday Supplements, and a blog post seemed the best way to answer.
I don’t just sit down and type. Designing material for each Sunday Supplement starts weeks, and sometimes months, before the material sees the public light of day. I mostly follow the process I outline below. It comprises three stages:
Get inspiration.
Capture thoughts.
Write the article.
Get Inspiration: Away From My Phone
My shiny and lovely iPhone is a blessing and a curse. It’s wonderful in so many ways, but it has a massive downside. My phone distracts me. It lurks in my pocket. It demands my attention. Therefore, when I’m walking the dog or running, I leave it behind unless I have a specific need for it. I feel freer and lighter without my phone, and my brain seems to be less distracted and more creative.
Get Inspiration: Reading
I love reading. I read a lot of books. I read for pleasure and also for “work”. You never know when a useful detail, fact, or individual will lodge in your mind. For example:
While reading Endurance—an account of Shackleton’s doomed Antarctic expedition—I came across the existence of greenheart. Greenheart is a super tough and dense type of wood used to sheath Endurance’s hull. Greenheart has since made it into several Raging Swan Press products and Sunday Supplement entries, including Naitheror’s Vale.
While reading The Indifferent Stars Above—a horrific and harrowing account of the doomed Donner Party—I discovered the role Lansford Hastings played in the horrific events. In brief, Lansford lied, for his own ends, about the suitability of the route the Donner Party eventually took (with disastrous consequences) to lure more immigrants to California. Enter the cunning and self-centred I’llaran Aralon of Ilsham
While reading the Atlas Obscura, I came across the Cave of the Crystals, and I used the general idea as a hook into the Crystal Caverns of the Arn Stone. I love grounding fantasy ideas in reality; it helps with verisimilitude.
Get Inspiration: Walking in Nature
There is a ton of evidence that spending time in “proper” nature away from technology is good for us in many ways. Some studies have shown that time in nature—think woodlands and the like—is good for our creativity, problem-solving skills and general wellbeing. If you are interested in learning more, I highly recommend The Nature Fix by Florence Williams and The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul. For example, consider these short extracts from The Extended Mind (page 109):
“…50 percent more creative following extended exposure to nature.”
“…enforced separation from phones and computers played no small part in the hikers’ increased ability to think creatively.”
(This article is already long enough–read the books to learn more.)
I usually spend an hour or more every day on Bishop’s Walk (a lovely woodland trail) or Walls Hill (a cliff-and woodland-fringed headland). It’s amazing the ideas that pop into my head when I’m out in nature with our mad black labrador.
Capture Thoughts: Apple Watch
I leave my phone behind as much as possible when I’m out with the dog or going for a run. If I don’t have my pocket notebook with me, I can still capture ideas using Draft’s dictation feature on my Apple Watch. By the time I’m home, the note is on all my devices.
(I have a cellular Apple Watch, which I can use to send and receive phone calls and text messages. That’s all I need, to stay in contact with my nearest and dearest while out and about.)
Capture Thoughts: The Daily Design Notebook
I am a big fan of pocket notebooks. I am rarely, except when out running, far from a notebook or two. I have a dedicated Daily Design notebook. It’s usually a Field Notes book. Here are some of my recent Daily Design Notebooks
The format is super simple: I dedicate one page to bullet points detailing one thing I am working on. For example:
The great thing about a pocket notebook is that it’s so easy to leaf through the pages. You can add something to one entry, clarify or remove something in another, and you can do it all at a glance without distractions. My Daily Design notebook rarely distracts me with notifications or tries to correct my spelling or grammar. It never runs out of battery. Bliss.
“Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters into your brain. Cheap paper is less perishable than grey matter, and lead pencil markings endure longer than memory.”
—John Griffith Chancey (aka Jack London)
Until I fill a page with notes, that idea does not normally move from the Daily Design Notebook to the writing phase
Capture Thoughts: Daily Design
I am a huge fan of checklists and routine. One of the items I have to tick off every day is aptly called “Daily Design”. To complete my Daily Design task, I must do some Sunday Supplement-based design. This task could be as small as thinking of a good name for a new Campaign Component or as involved as bullet-pointing several articles. It depends on how inspiration strikes. Luckily, as inspiration strikes every day, it doesn’t matter if some Daily Design tasks are smaller and quicker than others.
One of my favourite quotes on writing and inspiration:
“I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.”
–Somerset Maugham
Write the Article
I use Ulysses for designing the Sunday Supplement. I could use iA Writer (I love iA Writer and I’m writing this in iA Writer), but I’m experimenting to see if this context switch away from iA Writer helps me get into the “Sunday Supplement zone.”
Ulysses is a good app, and it has a lovely, uncluttered UI. I’m enjoying using it, but the jury is out on whether I will renew my subscription.
Writing is not a one-and-done proposition, of course. Hemingway said,
“The first draft of anything is shit.”
—Ernest Hemingway
My first draft is just the beginning. I work several weeks ahead of the schedule so I have time to draft and develop each Sunday Supplement. Each article goes through at least two development passes after the initial draft is complete before it appears in the Sunday Supplement.
The actual writing of an article is only a small part of the process. In many ways, it’s also the quickest part of the process because by the time I start writing, my subconscious mind has been working on a subject for some weeks. Ideas can gestate in my Daily Design Notebook for weeks or months before I decide I’m ready to start work on a given subject.
Conclusion
So that’s how I design the Sunday Supplements. It’s a relatively simple but lengthy process. Have you got more questions? Have you got a suggestion to make it better? Let me know in the comments below.