Write It Do It

Here are some tips for Write It Do It. I am assuming you’ve got the basics down, and these are some more advanced tips:

At the beginning, quickly describe what the whole structure looks like.

Start by describing the bottom, then move up level by level.

Have a way to describe left, right, close to you, and far from you. In the past, North, South, East, and West has worked well.

Use bullets or a numbered list, rather than writing in paragraphs.

Agree on words that you will use to describe the pieces. I call them rods and connectors. A list of parts is here.

Use abbreviations to shorten long words that you’ll write a lot (for example, “con.” instead of “connector”)

One of the hardest thing is describing where in a connector to put the rod. If you just told your partner to put a yellow rod into a green connector, she might put it in any of the notches. In the past, I tried numbering the notches, starting from left to right. So on the piece below, you’ve got notch 1, 2, 3, and 4. Then you could tell your partner to put a red rod into notch 1 of the green connector. You have to make sure you always count starting from the left. If the piece is upside down, then imagine that it is right-side up! As you can see, this gets a little confusing.

Those are just some ideas. They may or may not work for you. The most important thing is to develop a working system with your partner. Good luck!