This post is a little bit like a babushka doll. It’s about writing and drawing, about writing and drawing.

Recently I’ve been exploring a number of ideas through books and discussions with friends, family and colleagues. My life is a constant stream of crazy mindful chatter.

Keeping track of it all is a business.

Ideas are itchy. They need time to evolve and when that happens I find I have two ways of reacting.

  1. Writing
  2. Drawing

Drawing is my favourite thing. Here are some of my reasons why.

Less rework

Drawings are focused and memorable. They seem to stick. I don’t seem to have issues recalling if something has been covered before.

They tend to cover less scope.

Faster clarity

Often when I think about an idea I come at it from many angles. It leads me down a pathway of 1000’s of words to a single word.

When I take those streaming words and try to frame them in a drawing it helps me isolate what needs to be addressed.

Drawings clarify ideas fast.

Drawings give so much added context that it leaves much less room for ambiguity or interpretation.

Better landscaping

For some reason I find it much easier to navigate a wall of 300 images rather than I do a wall of 300 pages of text.

Mapping ideas and drawing connections is easier.

As an idea develops images seem to be easier to intellectually connect and disconnect when needed.

Images sit on a map nicely.

Realism

I tend to get lofty and ridiculously idealistic. With drawing physical shapes I tend to get more practical.

My drawings tend to tell a more realistic story.

Cadence

Good composition of an image is far easier. Its obvious when an image has too much info or is starting to get off point.

Drawings know when to stop.

Fewer Edits

Once a drawing is done it rarely need editing.

“Basically. I wrote this post. Then I drew it. Drawing it cleared it up BIG TIME. Notice the differences?! The drawing took 2mins, a lot less than the 15min the txt took, and far fewer edits. And it’s now leading me on to the realisation that perhaps drawing is a stepping stone to clearer writing! Whatever the case, the image feels more concise and more fun.”

Fewer edits?! Awesome…