How to study your craft
Use my SAYG technique, DSP framework, and craft station template
Hiya,
When I first started out as a writer, there were no fancy generative AI tools like Midjourney or ChatGPT that could scare early-stage creatives out of the industry, wow execs enough to fire their creative teams, or even gladden creatives' hearts with a promise to "augment" their work.
The creative industry has always been regarded with a certain scorn, but at the time, it was steadier on its ground, more accessible to those who were just finding their feet, who were ready to commit to the long practice of biting their pencils and figuring things out over time.
Today, gen AI tools have us all saying ‘dang’ in different tones of voice. If you're anything like me, your dang comes from a place of curiosity and concern. You explore the tools for different use cases to fit them into your workflows. But you also go a little ‘hmm.’ Because what does it mean that a machine can form coherent words and structures considered art? What does it mean for early-stage creatives and even the future of your craft, especially if you work for businesses (more so in tech)?
Well, one of my firm beliefs is that if you understand craft (and the industry you create within), the fears of the future dampen, you become less impressed with and intimidated by GenAI's output, and you learn to use these tools more sensibly.
Beyond your relationship with AI tools, you also start thinking clearly about what you create, why you create, and how you create. You get to understand the granularity of your creative form, tailor your creations to the task at hand, and develop models and frameworks that make you a reliable collaborator both at work and with other creatives. And, even better, you get to break the rules.
So, for this first episode of Craft and Machines, I'll share three techniques I use to study my craft in great detail:
The SAYG technique
The DSP framework
The craft station (+ a video walkthrough and my template)
I'll talk about these from a writer's perspective, but you can use them regardless of your creative field.
No more delays. Let's go.
The three ways I study my craft
1. The SAYG technique
The first, and perhaps most overlooked ways of studying your craft is while doing the actual work.
A couple years back, I read a piece by David Heinemeier Hansson in which he talked about committing to ‘getting better, smarter, faster at what it is [you] already spend eight hours a day at work doing,’ and it made all the sense in the world to me.
As adults, carving out time to study in a life so demanding of our attention and time, so consumed by the amount of admin we have to do, the number of things we must attend to, is difficult. So, why not do it on the job? On the go. Why not work more consciously, be more thoughtful about the choices you’re making in your craft as you do the work?
SAYG stands for Study-as-you-go. It's a technique that has immensely improved not only what I know about craft, but how I approach different projects.
Here's how I practice SAYG
Step 1: Understand the why before the how
Before creating anything, understand why you're doing it. Ask: But what exactly is the goal here? Why am I doing what I am doing? It could be business goals of driving product adoption or conversions, or personal project goals of trialing a creative format or building the muscle of consistency.
Whatever the goal, knowing it clarifies how you’ll approach it. Once you understand very clearly why you’re doing something, you’re able to start asking yourself how to use your craft to achieve that goal. The how question is where you tinker with and build your craft muscle. But you can't practice the how without clarifying the why.
Step 2: Let the goal shape your craft decisions
For example, if you’re creating copy for a landing page and the goal is to convert prospects to clients, force yourself to understand what conversion really means. What does it mean to convert someone? What does it mean to turn a prospect into a buyer? What elements do you need to include to make that happen?
This methodical questioning helps you develop the right concept and structure for the project. You start to discover that using language to convert requires tapping into human psychology. You begin thinking about how to use words to flesh out the problem, solution, proof points, business outcomes, and use cases in a way that actually speaks to your prospect.
Step 3: Question your process as you work
While creating, ask yourself: what's the most efficient way to approach this? How can I do this faster (if you're on a time crunch)? What's the best place to find the info I am looking for? Process questions help you uncover new ways of creating. They help you discover new tools and, even better, build a workflow library that you can reuse for future projects.
Step 4: Document decisions in real-time
While doing all of this, document your decisions. It might take a minute longer to complete the project, but it's worth every second. You'll never return to the document when you're done—trust me on this. So document as you go. When you're finished, maybe by the weekend, sit for 30 minutes to 2 hours to properly study your decisions, analyze results (if immediate), and document them properly for future use.
SAYG in a box
You spend 6-10 hours a day working, depending on the nature of your craft
Study as you go. Commit to improving your craft as you work
Aim to understand what you're doing and why you're doing it
Think through how to do it in a way that achieves that why very clearly
Document your decisions and your choices on craft as you make them
2. The DSP framework for learning
This one is for developing your taste and style—for studying what strikes you in other people's work, understanding your taste based on what you uncover, and using your findings to improve your craft's style.
The DSP framework stands for Document, Study, and Practice. It's a three-step process that, in the context of writing, involves documenting the sentence that strikes you, studying that sentence to figure out why it resonates with you, and practicing your observations in your own writing.
I love this process because it reveals what I love—in terms of style, structure, and taste—and is helping me hone my writing style.
How to Use the DSP Framework
Document: When reading a book/article, capture the sentence that stops you in your tracks. The one that captivates with vivid imagery, contains a clever play on words (I'm a complete sucker for this), or hits you emotionally. I document in Notion, but Evernote or your phone's native app work just fine.
Study: Once documented, dissect why that sentence stands out to you. Analyze the structure, word choice, and literary devices. Consider why it resonates and what emotions it stirs. Studying sentences in detail helps you understand the principles behind them, making it easier to create authentically rather than duplicate someone else’s style.
Practice: Finally, practice your observations in your writing. The entire process is useless without this step. Experiment with different sentence structures, metaphors, and descriptive language. With consistent practice, your writing improves and you develop a style that's uniquely yours.
How to use the DSP Framework with AI
AI won't read for you—and part of writing well is reading well. AI won't practice for you either. I know large language models excel at forming coherent sentences, but part of being a writer is doing the actual thing. Writing. AI also won't study for you, but it can assist you in this stage by defining terms, simplifying ideas, and giving you mental frameworks for thinking.
Here's an example of how I use AI to study:
1. Ask ChatGPT, Claude, etc.
Say I wanted to study some article intros I like. I’ll ask ChatGPT: Hey, I'll share about 5 different writing introductions with you. I need you to tell me what frameworks they follow. Tell me the name of the framework, and explain it in three paragraphs. Can you assist me with this?
💡 Side note: ChatGPT responds well to priming. Prompt lines like these where you ask it if it can assist you or if it understands your ask help prepare it for the task. I also recommend sharing the different intros/sentences one at a time.
2. Share your sentence
I type, 'Here is the first one,' and paste my intro (using Fadeke Adegbuyi’s intro as an example).
3. Ask more questions
The first prompt helps you understand the technique behind a sentence. But you can ask more questions to deepen your knowledge.
So, I ask:
Question 1: Okay if I wanted to think in this framework, what are the step-by-step ways I need to think? Is there a formula?
Question 2: If you understand what theme the writer is exploring, ask: What does the [Insert framework name] framework mean if you're writing about [Insert the broad theme explored by the writer]?
Question 3: To examine the writer's thought process, I ask: Let's say you were the writer of this piece. Before you started writing the piece, were you thinking about how humans have shared knowledge historically or were you thinking about how Twitter is a network for sharing knowledge?
Obviously, LLMs can't tell you what a writer was actually thinking. But it offers some perspective on identifying and connecting ideas more effectively.
DSP in a box
Use the DSP framework to develop your taste and style.
Document what strikes you in others' work, study the creative elements they use, and practice the techniques in your own craft.
Use LLM tools as a teacher in the study stage of the process.
If you're an experienced writer, use this process to learn more about your style. You'll be amazed by the patterns that emerge from analyzing your past work.
Read this next
3. The Craft station
Now this is the juiciest way I study my craft.
The craft station is a space for thinking, noticing, and playing. It's my most committed way of studying craft month after month, week after week—keeping craft alive in my consciousness, not in a consuming way, but in a way that makes me pay attention to different facets of my work.
I built mine in Notion, which I recommend for this level of documentation and organization. You can also keep hard-copy documentation if that’s more your thing.
When using the craft station, prioritize consistency over completeness. It doesn’t need to be perfect. Treat it like a journal for thinking, not a polished document for some teacher or exec to review.
What my craft station contains
The craft station contains seven trains, plus a bonus. Each train serves a different purpose, taking you through different trails of craft.
Monthly craft themes: Micro themes I commit to studying each month. This ranges from headlines and intros to thumbnails and specific storytelling techniques.
Weekly craft gym: Where I study my craft to understand it inside out.
Creative experiments log: Where I try things on purpose and track outcomes.
Craft tension log: To track areas where my intuition fights "best practices" (this is often where real voice develops).
Feels wrong: To document things people keep doing in content that don't work, overused phrases I keep editing, places where writing sounds "correct" but not clear.
Swipe files: To document and reverse-engineer something I liked (+ why).
Guardrails: Where I document my workflows and personal best practices for different areas of writing.
The Bonus: A skill assessment log.
So, what goes into each train?
Some things are better shown than told, so I made a video walkthrough of the different elements in the station.
Want a template of my craft station? Get it here.
Craft cracker
Enjoy this craft music of the month as you cackle, and if you’re a new writer interested in marketing, my dearest Stella is creating a library of resources for you.
Machine madness
If you want to create a copyable Google document template like this:
Simply leave the file access open to ‘anyone with the link’ on the share settings, then change edit to copy at the end of your edit link.
So instead of: docs.google.com/document/d/1ABC123/edit
Use: docs.google.com/document/d/1ABC123/copy
This automatically prompts anyone clicking the link to make a copy rather than use the ‘file’ feature.
Read this next:
What to expect next month
You tell me. I have some topics lined up, but I'd love to know what you wanna see next.
I've shared micro posts about a brand stack that helps me understand a business, community and information design, a work time tracker for being more reliable, etc. What idea would you like me to expand on? What's something you're curious about when it comes to craft, building systems, or using Gen AI sensibly?
Let me know in the comments. I’m not a machine, but I’ll actually read every response (shocking, I know).
My ask
Found this so valuable you wish you could buy me Moscato d’Asti?
Don't worry, save your money.
But share it with a buddy, mentee, or your content/creative team at work. It only takes 15 seconds.
Making this took 15+ hours of rolling on my bed, telling Stella I didn't have the energy to write, waking up at 3 am three days in a row to obsessively flesh out my thoughts, and tinkering up and down with Loom & design elements. Your share means more than you know.
I am so glad I came across this today and thank you for that powerful template. This article is a gem.
Your friend Treasure recommended this article to me a while ago, and I am in awe of the depth of knowledge you shared. Thank you!