bikes and things

Working as an Architect and occasional photographer I find that graphical representation comes far easier than words. Sure I can write formal emails, structure planning reports and minutes of meetings, but being any way creative with words isn’t something that comes easy to me really or that I have much practice at. One of the reasons for re-designing this blog was to find an outlet for longer pieces of writing and to maybe think of longer more structured pieces. Choosing the font and space surrounding text was a big part of the re-design. I often find it hard to think of things to say when it comes to writing pieces here and to avoid the temptation to simply use superlatives and then add a picture then hit post.

So when I had some time off in lieu recently I went for a ride along the river east and found myself taking a series of pictures recording my trip. I got back and then processed and wrote a hurried description including superlatives and added pictures. Done. What I had actually wanted to do was write an account of all the fascinating things I’d seen along that route, with carefully inserted pictures illustrating my points, and showing a thoughtful account of an interesting context.

Fortunately a few days later Building Design magazine Tweeted about wanting people to write about cycling and Architecture so I pitched the idea of re-writing my existing post for them which they accepted. The hard part was actually writing it which I procrastinated about and delayed until I had to just sit down and just do it. As usual I also thought about how I would use technology to help me achieve it and found a great little writing application called IA Writer which cuts out all the distractions and even lets you focus on the text sentence by sentence which I found invaluable, especially in full screen mode.

So armed with this and Google Maps I went along plotting all the interesting things I’d seen and working out how my pictures fitted in with the story. I was also keen to make sure I didn’t bitch or moan about anything that might upset anyone reading (and be attached to my name) but write it from the perspective of a guide book and let people make their own decisions. Three hours and 690 words later I found something I was happy with. I read through it another three times and then hit send on the email.

Fortunately BD liked it and published it a few days later. Even better was that it didn’t attract any nasty comments!