Michael, this is such a logical, inspired, and valuable extension of your thinking and experience in music and architecture. It is a gift to writers. Thank you for sharing it with the world.
I'm an Interior design student, and I've had a theory class that related design to a written language, saying that design elements have meaning and semantics. I didn't really think to relate it the other way around, from design to writing. Very interesting!
I have been thinking a lot recently about how we do this at the micro-level of social media posts and comments (as business owners and content creators).
And your language of patterns to define the elements seems beautifully connected. Can't wait to dig in and read more!
This is brilliant. Thank you for creating and sharing it. This essay lands before my eyeballs at the exact moment I was literally throwing my hands up in the air thinking, f*%ck(!) I will never ever get this!!!! I especially love the drawings. So....I'm now on (self guided) course on offer here. Again, thank you.
I found this helpful. My degree has been in civil engineering and my career has been mostly commercial construction projects.
My reading/writing only recently started to improve and I think the connection from architecture to the composition of essays have resonated with me. I’m hopeful that my writing will improve. There’s a lot of space for improvement.
Wow. THANK YOU. I read "A Pattern Language" in my liberal arts college, in a class where we were discussing the ecological and political implications of structure and design. I can not wait to read how you break this down. I also want to revisit Christopher Alexander, since I remember how much that book opened my mind.
Michael, this is such a logical, inspired, and valuable extension of your thinking and experience in music and architecture. It is a gift to writers. Thank you for sharing it with the world.
Plus, wow. Just wow. 🙏 ⭐️🤯
Wow I love this, I'm definitely going to be rereading this again and again!
Thank you for an in-depth explanation and exploration of this. I'll be checking out "A Pattern Langauge!"
I'm an Interior design student, and I've had a theory class that related design to a written language, saying that design elements have meaning and semantics. I didn't really think to relate it the other way around, from design to writing. Very interesting!
Michael,
Not only did this change how I view composition, it changed how I see human nature and myself. It wrapped me in a blanket of possibility.
I have been thinking a lot recently about how we do this at the micro-level of social media posts and comments (as business owners and content creators).
And your language of patterns to define the elements seems beautifully connected. Can't wait to dig in and read more!
Nice to stumble upon you here Gillian.
fascinatingly composed mate.
This is brilliant. Thank you for creating and sharing it. This essay lands before my eyeballs at the exact moment I was literally throwing my hands up in the air thinking, f*%ck(!) I will never ever get this!!!! I especially love the drawings. So....I'm now on (self guided) course on offer here. Again, thank you.
I found this helpful. My degree has been in civil engineering and my career has been mostly commercial construction projects.
My reading/writing only recently started to improve and I think the connection from architecture to the composition of essays have resonated with me. I’m hopeful that my writing will improve. There’s a lot of space for improvement.
…only 56,815,128,661,595,284,938,812,255,859,275 more essays to go and I will be complete…
The diagrams help me to understand. I like their handmade quality too. I think there's real juice in the combination of word and image.
Wow. THANK YOU. I read "A Pattern Language" in my liberal arts college, in a class where we were discussing the ecological and political implications of structure and design. I can not wait to read how you break this down. I also want to revisit Christopher Alexander, since I remember how much that book opened my mind.
This was so life changing that i spent the last one week handcopying this slowly to integrate it into my psyche.
you had me at "you don't need Rick Rubin"
Very interesting! If you'd like to see a parallel example of teaching using a pattern language, I refer to a paper in this post, which also introduces Christopher Alexander's concept. The example is teaching video game design. https://open.substack.com/pub/goprefigure/p/how-to-think-like-a-video-game-designer
Thank you for existing.
As an architecture writer, the logic and rationality you present to the art of writing is exquisite.
Saving this for future moments of frustrated, uninspired roadblocks 👏