An Account of Writing as Creative Design

This chapter attempts to answer the question " how do we write? " by looking beyond writing as a problem-solving process to consider the writer as a creative thinker and a designer of text. The aim is to take a step towards a general account of the processes of writing, and to resolve some of the seeming contradictions in studies of writers, such as: • writing is a demanding cognitive activity, yet some people appear to write without great effort; • most writing involves deliberate planning, but also makes use of chance discovery; • writing is analytic, requiring evaluation and problem solving, yet it is also a synthetic, productive process; • a writer needs to accept the constraint of goals, plans, and schemas, but creative writing requires the breaking of constraint; • writing is primarily a cognitive activity, but it cannot be performed without physical tools and resources. and descriptions of how designers think from Lawson (1990) and others. These will form the basis of an account of writing as creative design. The central part of the account is that writing is an open-ended design process, mediated by tools and resources. The way that a writer generates new material, and also manages the proliferation of possible next actions, is by imposing appropriate constraint. The constraints come from a combination of the given task, external resources, and the writer's knowledge and experience. Implicit constraints guide the writing process, and a writer re-represents some of these as explicit conceptual spaces. Creativity in writing occurs through a mutually promotive cycle of engagement and reflection, both guided by constraint. A session of engaged 'knowledge telling' generates written material for consideration. Reflection involves reviewing and interpreting the material as a source for contemplation. Contemplation generates new ideas which are explored and transformed, producing plans and constraints that drive a further period of engaged writing.