CONTEXT (why I’m writing, or what situation I want to bring attention to):
I’m riffing off a blog piece by my colleague Joel Friedlander, TheBookDesigner, on (TOPIC:) learning sequence. People’s minds tend to process information in sequential patterns, so writers need to offer their information with a logic that carries the reader along without a muddle.

WHY THIS MATTERS:
It is the initial challenge of editing most books: tracking what the reader needs to know as the content unfolds so s/he can understands what they are hoping to discover – or what the writer hopes to teach them. Most readers won’t sweat over something that they have to untangle to understand – they’ll close the book instead.

The offenders that frustrate me most frequently are JOURNALISTS! Particularly radio journalists (perhaps TV, too, but I avoid TV news because it numbs the sensitivity I need to serve my writing clients). They rarely locate or give context to their content before they plunge into the drama.

The audience needs to know: What country is this happening in? Who are the actors? What is their station in life? Before I want to know there WAS a tsunami, I want to know WHERE it was – specifically – because of my concern for people.  “Fighting broke out today between rebels and militias loyal to the ruling party.” Great drama. But what country did it happen in? Are the rebels an international force or disgruntled farmers whose wells have run dry in rural Nepal? The implications are tremendously different.

CONTENT:
Too frequently I receive manuscripts for editing that have no logic to their structure. I must begin with a structural analysis before trying to turn the words into correctly comprehensible, lively sentences.

EXAMPLE:
Imagine you are in the market to buy a house. You are taken to one which is overgrown with gorgeous wisteria in full bloom, the walkway littered with last year’s leaves. Personally, I’d be charmed – if it were someone else’s digs. But if I’m going to live here year round, I need to see what I’m committing to. Is the concrete path cracked? Is the roof rotten under the vines? Does enough light come through the windows to help me wake up in the morning? (Yes, I want a glorious day to welcome me each morning.)

RESOLUTION :
Writers can save their editors and readers a lot of sweat by building a logical outline, keeping in mind one question: What does my reader need to know here in order to track the content I am offering?

I’m hot on outlining. I’m old enough to have learned to in elementary school (meaningless as it seemed at the time). When was the last time children were taught how to write for good communication skills? And I ask this as a free-flow, informal writer myself. I can write for emotional release – in fact I lead workshops to do that. But if I want a reader to understand the source of the emotion, perhaps even empathize with me or have pity or compassion, I need to contextualize my life so they care about what I want to say.

I’m not only hot on outlining for the reader’s sake. An outline with a lot of detail makes the writer’s job much easier.

ELABORATION:
I recently had a conversation with a doctoral student whom I’m coaching through the dissertation process (these can be the worst as far as not understanding learning sequence).  His proposal had been approved (after presenting me one of the worst attempts at writing I’ve ever seen). When he had completed gathering data and was ready to write it up and develop his conclusions, I ordered him to outline – elaborating the very process which he’d listened to me talk about on my website and why he hired me. His first outline was 10 pages – the overview. We explored the reader’s learning sequence, re-arranging things. I suggested more detail. He sent me 46 pages and we repeated the process. I suggested more detail. He then sent 129 pages. I concluded our conversation with, “OK, you can begin writing now.”

A few days later he sent me ten pages of writing for feedback. It was terrific – which for a dissertation means logical and clear. He, of course, was delighted to hear my delight and said, “Writing was really easy. I could finish this dissertation (three years after starting) in a few weeks.”

COMMENTARY:
It’s true. A sufficiently detailed outline means you have thought through everything you want to say, so there is no need to interrupt the writing process with more research. And there are no Doubts (the biggest block to writing) slowing the process.

I concede, 129 pages is excessive – though for him, it was necessary in order to arrive at a place to write quickly and easily. “But doesn’t it take a long time to create such a huge outline?” It certainly takes some time, because every detail has been nuanced, every statement placed in alignment with every other. Most people get hung up in the writing process. But a detailed outline leaves no place to hang up (unless you’re OCD and have to contemplate whether each word is exactly and precisely and defensibly the best word to use. Fortunately, I teach techniques for people with that tendency.)

PRACTICALITY:
“Will I really need 129 pages?” Probably not. For most people, a few words that signify each thought are enough for each line of the outline. This client, however, was more comfortable writing whole sentences, so where five words would have sufficed for me, he inserted three lines. The benefit, of course, was that he could cut and paste from the outline into his paper.

“Did this really speed up the overall process?” For him it did, even with full sentences in the outline – because in his resistant mind the outlining process was free-thinking, not “writing” – so his internal editor (superego, inner critic) was snoozing in the hammock on the porch, leaving him free to plunge into the conceptualizing process on the swing next to the hammock.

CONCLUSION:
Did I use an outline for writing this? Of course not – it’s a one thought blog. BUT – I did read it over to ensure that the learning sequence was logical. And I added titles to the logical sequence to point to how the text developed the one thought.

ADDENDUM:
Outlining or good mapping is essential in much of fiction as well. The reader must be given enough information for the plot to remain interesting (a cohesive context), but some information needs to be withheld in order to maintain the reader’s curiosity and commitment to keep reading. A judicious fiction outline is often much more complex than for non-fiction, as well as more fluid. Perhaps I’ll post a second blog on this.

Until next time, delight in the process.

Download PDF: DCC Writer’s Guide To How People Learn