To create a guide for producing guide projects.

This project will be successful if:

1. The project followed all Cryptiquest Project Management guidelines.
2. The project followed Cryptiquest draft and version protocols.
3. The project used all applicable Cryptiquest tools and guides (as they are available).
4. The project was alpha tested in the first quarter of 2020.
5. The product is written for a 6th – 8th grade reading level.
6. The product is designed for “mobile-first”.
7. The product is made freely available in digital and print form.
8. The product exemplifies the rules it teaches.
9. The (digital) product can be updated based on user feedback.
10. User expectations regarding process guidance (from concept-to-launch) are met 100% of the time*.
11. User expectations regarding ease-of-use are met 100% of the time*.

*Based on testing guidelines.

The target audience is any creator who meets the following criteria:

• Can read at a middle school reading level.
• Can read English or can use tools to translate from English.
• Has a need to create a guide.
• Has motivation.

Sample User Cases:

• A Cryptiquest founder who wants to make a project management guide.
• An indie board game designer who wants to make an instruction manual.
• A high school student who would like to make a how-to guide for a school project.

1. EXPLORING YOUR VISION – DONE
   1. Project Needs Identified <M>
   2. Ideal Solution Fabricated <M>
   3. Target Audience Identified <M>
   4. Scope Identified <M>
2. PLANNING YOUR PROJECT – DONE
   1. Project Goal Identified <M>
   2. Objectives Identified <M>
   3. Tasks List Established <M>
   4. Project Dossier Created <M>
3. PLANNING YOUR PRODUCT – DONE
   1. Research Conducted <M>
   2. Objectives and Scope Revisited
   3. Outline Drafted <M>
   4. Presentation Format Determined <M>
4. PRODUCING YOUR PRODUCT – CURRENT
   1. First Draft Created <M> – CURRENT
      1. Steps for creating a “project document” and “how to journal” added in the Planning Phase
      2. Current Plan Phase section teased into two different phases: Exploration Phase and Plan Phase.
      3. Current draft restructured into Phase > Milestone > Steps structure?
      4. “Refining Your Product” changed to “Reviewing Your Product Content” and “Testing Your Product”
      5. Milestones Incorporated
         1. Phase overviews updated in the guide to include milestones
         2. Task list added to include milestones
      6. Steps added to the task list
      7. Instructions in Step 3 of Phase 2 rewritten (revisit the milestones associated with this step)
      8. “Conducting A Session” section of Appendix A updated to include adding titles
      9. Issue Log upgraded to an advanced table.
      10. Launch Phase drafted
      11. Close Phase drafted
      12. Project Need Analysis Tool drafted
      13. Objectivity Repository drafted
      14. Guide Style Standards drafted
      15. Guide Template drafted
   2. First Draft Reviewed Internally <M>
   3. Self-test Conducted <M>
5. REVIEWING YOUR PRODUCT CONTENT
   1. Confidant Draft Created <M>
   2. Confidant Draft Reviewed <M>
   3. Second Draft Created <M>
   4. Second Draft Reviewed <M>
6. TESTING YOUR PRODUCT
   1. Prototype Planned
   2. Prototype Created <M>
   3. Prototype Tested <M>
7. LAUNCHING YOUR PRODUCT
   1. Final Version Created <M>
   2. Communications Planned <M>
   3. Communications Prepared <M>
   4. Final Product Launched <M>
8. CLOSING YOUR PROJECT
   1. Retrospective Created <M>
   2. Loose Ends Tied <M>

Product Outline

1. Title
2. Version
3. Summary
4. Requirements
5. Phases
   1. Exploring Your Vision
   2. Planning Your Project
   3. Planning Your Guide
   4. Producing Your Guide
   5. Refining Your Guide Content
   6. Testing Your Guide
   7. Launching Your Guide
   8. Closing Your Project
6. Appendices
   1. A: Utilizing CQ Workflow
   2. Project Need Analysis Tool
   3. Objective Repository
   4. Guide Style Standards
   5. Guide Template

Product Style and Format

• To be determined after the Production Phase

Producing Guide Projects

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How to design, create, and launch a guide to help users complete a task or a series of tasks.

Overview

This guide provides step-by-step instructions to help you create a guide of your own. This guide incorporates Cryptiquest creative project management standards which provides a pathway from planning to publish. By following the process provided within this text, you will:

• identify what resources you need to make the guide;
• design the presentation parameters for your guide;
• draft and review the content for your guide;
• produce and test your guide;
• publish and launch your guide; and,
• debrief and officially close your guide project.

Preparing for Guide Production

You need the following items before continuing:

1. A desire for producing a guide of your own; and,
2. The means to create documentation.

Producing the Guide

Phase 1: Exploring Your Vision

By the end of this phase you will better understand why you are creating this product, who benefits from the product, and what form the product should (and should not) take.

Step 1: Identify the needs you are trying to solve.

You have a desire to create a guide. Now consider what needs this project is trying to satisfy. What problems are you hoping to solve or outcomes do you hope to gain?

Cryptiquest offers tools to help you with this process. The first tool helps with any step of the project and can be found in Appendix A: Utilizing CQ Workflow. This methodology will help you dig deeper to find answers by way of journaling and time managment.

Cryptiquest also offers a tool for you to help analyze your project’s needs which can be found in Appendix X: Project Analysis Tool.

Step 2: Describe the ideal solution if obstacles didn’t exist.

If money or physical limitations weren’t a problem, what would the best solution be to meet the needs of the guide? Performing this exercise may help you to better visualize the project goal or remove a preconceived idea from your head. Since the ideal solution you conjure is not necessarily within your means of production, it should only be treated as a tool and not serve as a commitment.

Step 3: Identify your target audience and their needs.

Before you begin to scope out your guide and project, you should identify who you think the target audience is (and isn’t) for the project. You need to explicitly answer the following questions:

1. Who is going to use this guide?
2. Who isn’t going to use this guide?
3. What limitations do these users have?

Even though you might not be reaching out to the target audience until a few steps later, performing the need-analysis now is crucial for several reasons:

• The guide should ensure the needs of the users are met.
• Whatever additional user considerations the guide needs to have need to be planned out.
• Knowing your target audience now helps with the review process in the future.

To identify your target audience, utilize the CQ Workflow until you feel like you thoroughly understand the answers to the three questions above.

Step 4: Explore the scope.

Exploring the scope works to define what both, your product and project, are and are not. There are two main factors to keep in mind: your product is the guide you are building and the project is the process you will follow to ensure the guide is successful.

Both your product (the guide) and the project (the process for making the guide) will have separate scopes since both entities have different definitions. The product scope will highlight the “must haves” for the guide while the project scope will cover the “must haves” for the production of the guide.

Another way to think of scope is to consider the limitations or constraints that your project faces: Is there a deadline? Are there any branding considerations you have to abide by? Are there target audience requirements that need to be met? etc. These constraints define the scope of your product and project.

Exploring the Product Scope

The scope for guides typically come down to the following parameters:

• Format: The medium in which the guide will be created (e.g. printed handout, digital PDF, etc.)
• Repository: The facility where the guide will be stored (particularly if online, the website, drive, server, or app where will it be hosted)
• Breadth: The depth at which the guide coves the topic (e.g. “this guide will teach the fundamental rules of chess but not strategy”, etc.)
• Subject Matter Expert: An authority in the topic used to pull information from (e.g. resource material, expert-in-the-field, etc.)
• Target Audience: The users you identified in the previous step of this guide (e.g. my fellow students, creators of at least 6th grade reading level, etc.)
• Usability: How successful the guide is in teaching the topic (e.g. 100% of those who use the guide correctly will be able to complete the task, etc.)

Exploring the Project Scope

The scope for guide projects typically come down to the following parameters:

• TIME
  • Deadline: The date something is due (e.g. the day the project should be finished, the day the product should launch, etc.)
  • Hours: The amount of hours that can be spent on the project; sometimes this is controlled by budget and sometimes this is controlled by deadline as the “total number of hours before the deadline” minus the “number of hours of unavailability” (e.g. holidays, other obligations, etc.)
• COSTS
  • Direct Expenses: Costs and fees for products or services needed to pay for this project (e.g. paper, professional editing, etc.)
  • Indirect Expenses: Products or services that have costs or fees that may have already been paid for other projects (e.g. web hosting costs, ink, design software, etc.)
• RESOURCES
  • People
    • Direct Stakeholders: The people who are directly affected by the results of the project and product (e.g. you, your company, the users, etc.)
    • Indirect Stakeholders: The people who are impacted by the project but not necessarily the product (e.g. designers, reviewers, editors, etc.)
    • Invisible Stakeholders: The people who could be impacted by your involvement with the project (e.g. your family, your friends, etc.)
  • Materials: The items used to complete the project and product (e.g. paper, writing utensils, rubber bands, etc.)

Phase 2: Planning Your Project

By the end of this phase you will have defined the goal and the metrics, pathway, and means to track the progress needed to ensure you successfully meet that goal.

Step 1: Define the project goal.

The project goal defines how your guide will meet your core need. Your goal will start with “to create a guide that will…” followed by a short description of the need being solved.

Step 2: List out the objectives for this project.

The objectives serve as a litmus test to determine whether the project was successful or not. They ensure that the project meets criteria that are important to you. If you don’t know what criteria are important to you then you may want to consider starting a separate project to determine your personal (or company’s) objectives.

As you list objectives, they need to be written with a measurable and neutral structure. Consider the following example: “The story is entertaining.” This is not objectively measurable. How do you determine if a story is entertaining in a way that’s not subjective? A better way to write this could be: “When surveyed, all reviewers report that the story is entertaining.” Even though the reviews themselves will be subjective, there is an objective unit to measure: reviewer survey ratings.

(Need to add step-by-step example using reference once it’s identified.)

Step 3: Create a task list for the project.

Most projects are large and involve many steps – some known, some unknown. Creating a task list is crucial in providing a location for those steps. Ultimately, the task list is an outline – but one you will refer to and refine multiple times throughout your project.

To create your task list, write down each of the remaining phases, like so:

1. Planning Your Product
2. Producing Your Product
3. Reviewing Your Product Content
4. Testing Your Product
5. Launching Your Product
6. Closing Your Project

Under each phase, list out the steps from the guide. Cryptiquest recommends writing these with a format that describes the noun that describes the result followed by the past tense of the verb used to produce the result (Result Produced). Examples: Test Conducted; Draft Reviewed; Prototype Planned; etc.

1. Planning Your Product
   1. Research Conducted
   2. Objectives and Scope Revisited
   3. Outline Drafted
   4. Presentation and Format Determined
2. Producing Your Product
   1. First Draft Created
   2. First Draft Reviewed Internally
   3. Self-test Conducted
3. Reviewing Your Product Content
   1. Confidant Draft Created
   2. Confidant Draft Reviewed
   3. Second Draft Created
   4. Second Draft Reviewed
4. Testing Your Product
   1. Prototype Planned
   2. Prototype Created
   3. Prototype Tested
5. Launching Your Product
   1. Final Version Created
   2. Communications Planned
   3. Communications Prepared
   4. Final Product Launched
6. Closing Your Project
   1. Retrospective Created
   2. Loose Ends Tied

The last official step for your task list is to mark which tasks are milestones. A milestone is an objective that defines work during a phase. Mark a <M> after all the milestones. Your task list should end up looking like the following:

1. Planning Your Product
   1. Research Conducted <M>
   2. Objectives and Scope Revisited
   3. Outline Drafted <M>
   4. Presentation and Format Determined<M>
2. Producing Your Product
   1. First Draft Created<M>
   2. First Draft Reviewed Internally<M>
   3. Self-test Conducted<M>
3. Reviewing Your Product Content
   1. Confidant Draft Created<M>
   2. Confidant Draft Reviewed<M>
   3. Second Draft Created<M>
   4. Second Draft Reviewed<M>
4. Testing Your Product
   1. Prototype Planned
   2. Prototype Created<M>
   3. Prototype Tested<M>
5. Launching Your Product
   1. Final Version Created<M>
   2. Communications Planned<M>
   3. Communications Prepared<M>
   4. Final Product Launched<M>
6. Closing Your Project
   1. Retrospective Created<M>
   2. Loose Ends Tied<M>

Notice how task items 1.2 and 4. 1 are not marked with <M>? Those tasks are important but completing them only supports the next step in the phase. They are more like pre-tasks but they are important enough not to skip. Feel free to use this task list as a template to build from.

From here, you should add sub-tasks. These will vary based on your project. For example, once your product outline is created, each section could be added as sub-tasks to Task 2.1 First Draft Created.

Refer to and update the task list often!

The task list is not just a thing you create and move on. It is a tool that you use often while navigating toward project completion. In addition, it is considered a “living document” – one that changes over time. As you finish tasks, cross them off the list, do not delete them.

Feel free to add and change steps as needed. This tool is designed to be flexible. Every project has problems that bubble up. As you discover problems and identify solutions, add whatever steps necessary to the task list.

For example, while working on her first draft of a story, an author discovers that a chapter just isn’t working out. After a session of analysis, she decides that she needs to conduct further research in order to become more familiar with the topic. She adds a subtask to research the topic to the task list. This may look as follows. (The green text was the added task.)

• 2. Producing Your Product
  • 1. First Draft Created <M>
    • Chapter One Drafted
    • Chapter Two Drafted
    • Research Chapter Three Topic
    • Chapter Three Drafted

Step 4: Create a dossier to log your project materials.

The final step for planning your project is creating a Project Dossier. This living document will house the important aspects of your project: The goal, objectives, target audience, task list, etc.

To start, create a generic title – this will updated later. The recommended format is as follows: Project Dossier: The Name of Your Project. But replace “The Name of Your Project” with the actual name of your project.

Then you will add seven headers:

1. Goal
2. Objectives
3. Target Audience
4. Tasks
5. Design Specs
6. Draft
7. Issue Log

For the first four sections, simply add the content you already generated during the exploration and planning phases. Leave the rest of the sections blank for now.

Refer to and update the project dossier often!

This is the main document for logging the progress of your project. Your task list lives here, your goal and objectives are easily referenced here as well as a write-up of your target audience.

Using The Issue Log

As problems come up for your project, document them in the Issue Log. You need to necessarily take care of them as they are discovered, but you should write them down here so you know exactly where to look for previous problems.

The Issue Log works best as a table. There are five columns Cryptiquest recommends using though feel free to increase or decrease the amount of columns based on your project needs. The five Cryptiquest recommends are:

1. ID – This is just a serial number to help organize and refer to
2. Issue – A statement that explains the problem
3. Session Discovered – The session notes to refer to when the problem was made known
4. When to Address – Approximately when in the project plan this issue should be solved
5. Status – One or two words to identify the progress made toward settling the issue

The ID is a number. Each issue should have a unique number. Using sequential whole numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) works well.

The Issue should be written down concisely either as a phrase or sentence (e.g. “Chapter 4 needs to be split into two chapters.”, “Do not have villain’s motivation established”, etc.).

The Session Discovered is a reference to the session when you discovered the issue. This is why titling your sessions is important.

The When to Address column refers to how soon a session will be necessary to address the issue. This could range from “Immediately” to “During the current phase” to “As a new project”.

There are three recommended terms to use for the Status column:

• Done – The issue has been settled
• Slated – The issue has been “scheduled”
• Unattended – The issue is unsettled and has not be “scheduled”

After you add your issue to the log, it is best practice to attend to any that are listed as “Unattended” to slate them. The term “slate” here refers to adding them either to the project’s Task List, a calendar, or some other scheduling tool (example, Cryptiquest has a “project shelf” which is a table to schedule future projects).

Here is an example of a Issue Log:

ID	Issue	Session Discovered	When to Address	Status
1	Chapter 4 needs to be split into two chapters.	Session 18	Immediately	Done
2	Do not have villain’s motivation established	Session 20	During the “Chapter 6 drafted” task	Slated
3	Like to create a promotional cutout of the villain	Session 24	As a new project	Slated

Phase 3: Planning Your Guide

By the end of this phase you will have researched and organized the product content and determined a format for its display.

Step 1: Research the necessary topics for your guide.

Before you can properly produce your guide, you should understand the topic, estimate an outline, and determine the design style that is necessary.

If you do not understand the topic then you need to conduct some research. You hopefully identified one or more trusted sources during as part of the scope of the project. If not, now is your chance to do so.

To research the topic, review the sources and note, highlight, or otherwise document points that should be explained in your guide. Do not attempt to write the guide yet – just write down notes for now. By the time you are done with this step, you should have read through your sources and created a collection notes to work from. If you do not feel as though your notes are complete enough, consider seeking out new sources to draw from.

Step 2: Revisit the project objectives and scope.

Once you have conducted your research, read back through your project objectives and product scope to ensure your results align with your vision. If they are not aligned then you either have to refine your notes, find different sources, or run through the planning phase again and update it to reflect a new direction.

Step 3: Draft the outline for your guide.

You’ve now conducted your research and it matches your vision for the project – the next step is to draft an outline for your guide. You most likely already have an idea of how the information will flow. Most guides follow the following outline:

1. Title
2. Version
3. Summary
4. Preparing for “the Endeavor”
5. Phases
   1. Phase 1
      1. Step 1
      2. Step 2
      3. Etc.
   2. Phase 2
      1. Step 1
      2. Step 2
      3. Etc.
   3. Etc.
6. Appendix

Step 4: Determine the presentation format for your guide.

Think about how you wish to present your guide and be sure to pay special attention to parts that require more than just text to explain. Cryptiquest has a helpful guide for formats (included in the Appendix of this guide). Above all else, remember that the goal is to guide your reader and you should do what you can to ensure they can read it as easily as possible.

Phase 4: Drafting Your Guide

By the end of this phase you will have created a rough version of the content and assessed it as both a reader and a user.

Step 1: Conduct sessions to work on your outline items.

Using your outline, start from the top and work your way down, utilizing the CQ Workflow until you get to the end. Some smaller outline items may be grouped together to be completed in the same session (the title, version, and summary) while some larger items take a full session (the phases, generally), while still the largest items may need to be broken up into multiple sessions (some appendix items).

When drafting your guide, write your copy in the session notes. This may require many iterations before you are satisfied with them. Once you are satisfied, take the final iteration and place that into the draft of your project document.

While writing, you may discover that something isn’t working – for instance, an item might be missing from your outline or the sequence you’ve planned might not make sense after all. Setbacks like this are perfectly normal and to be expected. In this situation, you’ll want to spend a session or two to journal through the problem. Use the CQ Workflow to explore what the problem is and identify multiple solutions. Once you’ve decided on the best solution, consider what steps are needed to complete that solution and how those steps will change your task list.

Step 2: Conduct an internal review and make edits.

The goal of this step is to iron out large or simple mistakes that you can catch before sending it to reviewers. Reviewers will find easy-to-catch mistakes before tackling more nuanced editing that you more likely need help with. By removing those easy fixes, you will assist reviewers in digging deeper to provide a more effective review. To conduct an internal review, read the first draft in the following ways:

1. Silently read through the draft to yourself (and edit);
2. Read the draft aloud (and edit); and,
3. Look over the project’s objectives and read through the draft again with the objectives in mind.
4. Once these three readings are complete, you should be ready for the next phase. By all means, keep editing if you think it isn’t ready for others to read.

Step 3: Perform one or more alpha tests.

Once you’ve conducted the three readings, it’s time to perform an alpha test. The alpha test is where you pretend you are a user (or group of users) and follow your guide as they would, step-by-step.

For example, if your guide is an instruction manual for a two-player game, you will follow the instructions as two players new to the game until the game is over. Or if your guide is a tutorial for using a tool, you would pretend to be a new user and follow the steps in the tutorial until completion.

As you perform your alpha test, write down errors, problems, typos. Then once you are complete, edit your guide or conduct a journaling session or two to tackle bigger issues. Feel free to conduct multiple alpha tests until you’re convinced that you won’t be able to uncover any more errors on your own.

The purpose of performing the alpha test is to try to see the guide through the eyes of your users. You’ve spent so much time writing the guide from your perspective that it’s a good idea to shift your thinking to consider how others might see it. This is crucial to finding glaring logistical errors before presenting it an external audience.

Phase 5: Reviewing Your Product Content

By the end of this phase you will have updated the content with updated versions reviewed by confidants then by a “second-draft” group.

Step 1: Research your target audience and how to reach them.

Now that a draft has been created, internally reviewed, and alpha tested; it’s a good time to review your target audience and research outreach. Review the target audience section of your project document that you created in Phase 1. (If you didn’t follow that step, it’s pretty important to do so now.)

Take a session to explore methods for reaching your target audience. Are there groups that they are a part of that you can easily address? Or perhaps there are online forums where some users exist? Once you discover where your target audience might be reached, the next thing to consider is the best way to approach them. Professional sales pitches might be better for some groups while genuine, down-to-earth “I’m just a fellow creator looking for help” requests might be better for others.

Even though you might not be reaching out to the target audience until a few steps later, performing the need-analysis now is crucial since reviewers often wonder how they are supposed to perceive the material. They will want to know what kind of audience they are reading for and what that audience is supposed to take away. This information will help them advise you more effectively.

Step 2: Prepare the drafted work for external review.

Prepare the drafts in the medium in which you are going to share them with the reviewers. Are you going to print out the material and mail/hand it to them? Are you going to place it into a cloud service and email it or message them on a social media platform? However you plan on presenting it to them, prepare it and perform another review (silent-read through). Sometimes seeing it in the new format reveals typos you missed the first time.

Step 3: Send the drafted work for confidant review.

The first draft for an external audience is sent to one or two confidants. Ask them if they would be willing to critique your work but be respectful of their time. When asking for their help, provide them with the amount of reading involved before they commit. Only upon their acceptance of the critique should you provide them with the work (to avoid the risk of coming off as presumptuous).

Step 4: Edit the work then send out for second-draft review.

Ensure you thank your reviewers upon their review. It is important to note that you do not need to implement every (or any) change that they suggest. Often times, reviewers are good at identifying problems but their solutions are less helpful (since they cannot fully understand the intent of your work as well as you). Carefully consider the suggestions and make changes that help meet your project’s needs.

Once you make the changes, send the latest draft to the “second-draft” group. Reach out to the target audience using the methods you identified in Step 1 (if possible). This group of people should consist of 3 – 5 people who are different than the confidants. It’s good to have a larger pool to choose from as this group might not be as regularly committed to the task or as knowledgeable of your cause. Despite this, their critiques are just as valuable and their efforts should be equally appreciated. Again, be respectful of them and their time: ask them if they are willing to critique your work and wait for their affirmation before sending them the material.

If you do not have a group of “second-draft” reviewers at-the-ready, consider joining an online forum or finding a local group in a newspaper or library.

As you get feedback, make edits to the draft following the same principles stated in the first paragraph of this step.

Phase 6: Testing Your Product

By the end of this phase you will have created a test version of the product and had it tested by at least one other user.

Step 1: Plan your basic prototype – just the essentials for testing.

Once the copy for your guide is peer-reviewed, catalog what parts are missing (e.g. illustrations, etc.). If the missing parts are necessary for users to understand the instructions then assess how much work is needed to create those parts.

For elements that might require costs or professional design (e.g. an illustrated example, etc.), consider if a sketch or other quick draft could suffice. You do not want to spend time or money on something that might be changed after testing.

Step 2: Conduct sessions to build your prototype.

Spend as many sessions as needed to prepare your prototype but only spend as much time as necessary so users can test your guide.

Step 3: Reach out to testers to conduct trials.

Reach out to Testers

Once the prototype is ready, it’s time to conduct prototype tests. Reach out to your confidants and target audiences to try to request their help. Follow the same guidelines as if you were requesting a review: Ask them if they would be willing to test your guide but be respectful of their time. When asking for their help, provide them with the amount of time and work involved before they commit. Only upon their acceptance of the critique should you provide them with the prototype (to avoid the risk of coming off as presumptuous).

You may orchestrate the tests so you are present to document the user’s experiences with your prototype or have them provide feedback after they test it. Either way, the goal is to receive feedback about what works or what needs work.

Make Changes

After receiving feedback, you may need to spend a journaling session or two to figure out what the feedback means, what changes are needed, and how best to implement those changes.

Repeat Prototype Tests

Ideally, you would be able to test a prototype until it requires no further changes. That’s not always feasible – especially if your pool of testers is limited. Cryptiquest recommends testing each iteration of your prototype until three tests for the same iteration prove no need for changes. Once this is achieved, you can move on to the next phase with a degree of confidence.

Phase 7: Launching Your Product

By the end of this phase you will have created the release version of the product; planned and created marketing materials; and, released the product and materials.

Phase 8: Closing Your Project

By the end of this phase you will have created a retrospective and tied up any remaining loose ends.

Appendix A: Utilizing CQ Workflow

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Learn the workflow process Cryptiquest recommends to increase the chances of project success and mitigate project pitfalls.

Overview

The CQ Workflow is a simple methodology for working through any task, problem, or project that can be solved using critical thinking. The process consists of three parts: Sessions, Journaling, and Action Items.

Preparing for Guide Production

You need the following items before continuing:

1. The means to create documentation.

Introducing The CQ Workflow

When muddling through a task, Cryptiquest recommends working in blocks of time known as sessions. The length of time for a session will vary from person-to-person based on the time that person can allot. For instance, an independent writer may need to write daily for 8 hours in order to keep up with deadlines and may break up her time into two different 4 hour chunks. These 4 hour chunks would be the writer’s sessions. For another example, a stay-at-home dad who may also coaches his kid’s cheer team might only be able to spare ten minutes to work on panels for his comic book project. These ten minute chunks would be his sessions. The standard duration Cryptiquest uses is three hour chunks as it seems to allow momentum to grow and allow enough time to see minor tasks completed.

Determine the amount of time you’d like to dedicate to a session then plan when that session is going to happen. Then do your best to stick to that scheduled time.

During your session, you will work on the project by performing action items and journaling. Action items are tasks while journaling is a method for solving thought problems.

Action items are tasks that have a clear objective. For instance, “Draft Chapter One” is a task that will clearly be complete once Chapter One is drafted. On the other hand, an action item like “Research Style Guides” does not have a clear objective and is not an action item. To make this objective clear, the Action Item could be labeled something along the lines of “Research Style Guides to Form A Style Strategy”.

Journaling is a method for working through thought problems and is the most important aspect to the CQ Workflow. The process itself is simple: write your thoughts down in a near stream-of-conscious monolog. That’s it. You do this until you’ve come up with a solution to your problem.

To start, simply write down the problem as if you were writing it to a friend. Then ask questions about your problem and answer those questions with what you know. As you answer questions, more questions should arise. If the back-and-forth reads like a dialogue between you and yourself – then you are doing it right.

For example, consider the previous example of the freelance writer. Perhaps she’s writing a short fantasy story about family pets. She knows that she wants the story to feature a dog named Daisy who gets magical powers and can control the minds of any cat she sees. Maybe the writer has an idea for the beginning and ending of the story but she doesn’t know exactly what the dog is going to do with these magical powers. Here is a sample of how she might figure things out through journaling:

“So Daisy can control cats but what does she do? I don’t want Daisy to be mean or harm the cats in the neighborhood. What would I do if I were a dog? I guess I’d have them bring me gifts? As in treats? Perhaps the cats keep bringing the wrong things and that become more and more funny. Like they misunderstand dog toys for treats and exploit that logic.

What items might this list include? A wood chip (since dogs are always munching on sticks, right?), an old thrown out CD (don’t you chew on those flying disc things?), and something like a tennis ball? What’s round, yellow-green and fuzzy but NOT something a dog would likely want to eat? Does anything like that exist? Oh! A chrysanthemum flower!”

Journaling helps you clear your mind of questions and ideas and permits you to explore and make mistakes. It enables you to go deeper into your thinking that you would otherwise be unable to do by just “thinking”.

Writing the first draft of something can be intimidating as there may be a tendency to wait until the idea is good or fleshed out or perfect before committing it to the page. But with journaling, you are free of this urge. It can be liberating to write all the bad ideas and embarrassing questions in a format that won’t be seen by others. In addition, this method induces momentum – your ideas will flow beyond anything that could happened if you tried to ponder your way to perfection.

Conducting A Session

Step One: Set Up Your Document

You need four sections for your session: a Title, Goal, Notes, and Action Items.

If you are using paper and pencil, the Title can be written at the top. Choose something unique, perhaps using the date. The Goal can be presented at the top of the first page (under the title) and the Notes will start underneath. A separate piece of paper should be used for logging Action Items.

When using a digital format, again start with a unique Title and place the Goal at the top then add a section for logging Action Items. Write your Notes in the space between the Goal and Action Items (the Action Items section will keep moving down your document as you type).

Step Two: Write Down Your Goal For The Session

What do you plan to accomplish during this session? Don’t fret about what happens if you don’t finish before the session ends. You may have to plan multiple sessions to complete your goal. That’s okay. But simply write what you hope to accomplish by then end of your session.

Using the previous example, our writer may have listed her goal as: “By the end of this session I will have come up with scenes for how Daisy uses her powers.”

Step Three: Start to Journal

Simply by writing out what you plan to do asking any pertinent questions that you don’t yet have answers to and ask more questions along the way. There isn’t a standard system for how many questions or how long this should take. It’s based on feeling and that feeling is that you are comfortable and confident to tackle Action Items.

Speaking of Action Items – as you journal, you may come up with ideas for tasks to do in the future. Log them in the Action Items section so you can easily find them later on.

Step Four: Session Closure

After completing the session, write a summary of how the session went, what still needs to be done, and what you plan on doing in the next session. Ensure all outstanding Action Items are logged in the Action Items section.

Step Five: Handling Action Items

You do not need to execute the action items you discovered but as a final step, you should look through the Action Items and log them in your project schedule, calendar, or whatever system you use for tracking the work you need to do.