Having written over 200 project narratives in the past seven years, I feel in the position to offer some advice on writing them. For this first post on the topic I’ll start simple—a list of words to avoid (or limit your use of). Because I don’t want it to seem that I’m only criticizing the … Continue reading On words to avoid in architecture writing
Tag: writing
On Day 1 of doing morning pages
After lingering on my to-read list for years, I finally checked Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way out from the library last week. Right away, I encountered a core idea of her creativity practice that I rebelled against: the morning pages. What are morning pages? Put simply, the morning pages are three pages of longhand writing, … Continue reading On Day 1 of doing morning pages
On wondering how to teach writing to architects
As the firm I work for has grown the past few years, I've run up into a repeated problem: I don't have enough time to market every project. The solution seemed obvious: another marketer. With another marketer in the firm, we could tackle it all and make it work, giving every project the marketing support … Continue reading On wondering how to teach writing to architects
On using ChatGPT for A/E/C marketing, Part 1
I recently wrote about needing to embrace ChapGPT (and/or its future competitors) as part of our future workplace. So I gave it a shot. And while the results weren't great, they were decent enough to confirm that there's an essential skill A/E/C marketers—and many other knowledge workers—will need to develop in the next few years: … Continue reading On using ChatGPT for A/E/C marketing, Part 1
You can’t get away with vagueness and nonsense in writing
In conversation you can get away with all kinds of vagueness and nonsense, often without even realizing it. But there's something about putting your thoughts on paper that forces you to get down to specifics. —Lee Iacocca I've always been impressed by people who can speak in paragraphs. You know, the person who can reel … Continue reading You can’t get away with vagueness and nonsense in writing
Getting tired of “times like these”
In the past several weeks, I've had to do quite a bit of what I think of as "big picture" writing. "Big picture" writing is writing—usually in someone else's voice—where you step back from the everyday, take the pulse of things, and then attempt to say something about it all that is general but also … Continue reading Getting tired of “times like these”
Bring on the bear!
One of the basic rules of Esquire was, if you're going to write about a bear, bring on the bear!Byron Dobell, former editor of Esquire This has to be one of my favorite insights about how to structure a piece of writing, partly because I think bears are the coolest. Bring on the bears! A … Continue reading Bring on the bear!
Taylor Coe 