The Architecture of Writing

In his Wired Magazine article, “The Art of Immersion: Why Do We Tell Stories?" author Frank Rose examines how all audiences depend on familiar patterns to receive content:

“Just as the brain detects patterns in the visual forms of nature — a face, a figure, a flower — and in sound, so too it detects patterns in information.”

Rose suggests that we need patterns to make sense of all audience directed content. “Stories are recognizable patterns,” he writes, “and in those patterns we find meaning.”

In short, pattern (and your intentional use of it) is the most essential ingredient for all content development--blogs, books, college essays… you name it. Without the intentional flow of your written elements, you leave your reader with a chaotic jumble of words, minimizing comprehension, and leading a reader exodus off the page.

This is where the problems begin.

We learn "English" by studying meaning. What's the meaning of this book, this story, this poem, or this essay? Identify the theme. Examine the global connections. Dig beneath and through and determine the connections.

Why Meaning Needs to Take a Backseat

It's great stuff and constitutes the vast majority of English studies.

I get it.

Humans crave meaning.

We seek understanding.

We want to know how things work.

Unfortunately, when you only focus upon the delivery of meaning, you lose sight of the architecture behind the writing, the patterns required to deliver content effectively, the internal mechanisms that make writing work.

In my experience as a college professor, the tendency to ignore the structure of assigned works paves the road to a stack of essays that are in dire need of help.

In my work in the field of publishing, well… without attending to key considerations like design, flow, contextual relationships – you don’t get published.

As Rose argues above, humans need pattern to make sense of things.

Great writing needs deliberate patterns, but, most important, "meaningful" writing demands it.

Return to Writer's Corner