Better writing through extensive planning
At the beginning of the career, every writer thinks that planning is a thrill-killer.
Something that takes away the excitement of exploration of a theme and makes it mundane and uninteresting. Because “creativity works in the mysterious ways” or some other nonsense.
That’s why so many inexperienced writers stumble upon relatively easy tasks early on.
Even an essay on some “out-there” “no-big-deal” subject can be a crushing blow. “Just doing it” is a horrible idea that will not drive you far, not to mention providing you with any privileges.
Why planning is critical for good writing?
Planning is one of the most important aspects of the writer’s work. Without it, the writer is just a monkey addicted to chance and lucky charms.
Since creativity rarely comes naturally and usually demands backbreaking work, most of which is covered under the surface, there’s not much sense in gambling.
This time you have it, next time you don’t, and then you’re consumed in horror of stepping into parts unknown. That’s not right.
That’s why the plan is the key to a productive writing process.
It gives you confidence in your actions. Any given task can be scary when you see the description. However, composing the plan can easily shatter your fears of starting. As easy as it seems — the plan is a guarantee that you will know what you need to do in a particular order.
Breaking down the task into a series of smaller ones will give you much needed psychological relief, and with it, your worries about the efficiency of your actions will be hushed.
Think global — act local, as the culture-jamming activists say.
The step-by-step plan will make your goals much clearer, and by that, it will allow you to concentrate on certain things instead of a haphazard little bit of this and a little bit of those routines.
As an ultimate example of exquisite planning with tremendous results — Michel Lotito. He ate bicycles, computers, beds, television sets, coffins, and even airplanes. His method was to break everything into small digestible pieces before attempting to eat it. Nice and simple.
Usually, a plan consists of several principal parts. More on them down below.
Research
The backbone of every project. Nothing starts out of anything. Even your own ideas have a foundation in your previous experiences.
With your topic set — that’s the simplest way to start working.
At this stage, you need to gather as much information on the subject as you can.
Mind that at this moment, you are just collecting the info, not analyzing it.
The other important thing you must remember is that you can jump all over the place — since the structure comes later, you need to immerse yourself into the subject and gather the pearls.
Synthesize
At this stage, you need to go through the material you’ve gathered on the previous stage and divide it into several categories.
For example — one file for historical background, another file for aesthetic qualities, third file for spicy random facts, fourth file for quotations and direct speeches, and so on.
This will give you a clear vision of what you have. Consider this as swimming in or irradiating yourself with the information.
Develop your arguments
This stage is when forging your point of view out of a material you’ve gathered and organized on previous stages.
While doing it, you may notice that some things may need to be expanded or revised, and that’s a good time to do some additional research.
Another thing you need to keep in mind is the avoidance of repeating arguments of the other author.
There’s no need to backtrack everything on a given subject — you must cover your base.
Compose a structure
At this stage, you need to put an order in your reasoning. Consider this to be the making of a map.
In general terms, the structure defines as proverbial “beginning, middle, and end.”
At the start, you can turn to the templates — other writings on similar subjects upon which you can model your vision. The most effective structure consists of three distinct parts:
- In the opening paragraph, you describe what you’re about to do. It sets the theme and roll over to the main narrative.
- In the central part, you need to put everything on the table and make it as clear as possible — with no ambiguity or whatsoever.
- Then you must bring it all to some conclusion in the closing statements.
Write
This stage is the natural continuation of a previous. With the finished structure, it will be more like connecting dots and less like making a mountain.
Your primary focus at this moment — keeping the style and pace consisting throughout the text.
Also, beware of temptations to start editing or revising reasoning — this will not help if you don’t have the full picture.
It will only make matters worse. Stay focused on writing everything down without stopping to fix anything. Just don’t stop until it is done.
Take a Break
After finishing the initial draft, you need to leave it be for some time.
It is crucial to completely shut down any activity on the project at this point.
Do something else — another article or maybe “Netflix and chill” or something.
This approach will allow you to distance yourself from the text, and by that, you will be able to see its flaws. This stage is also known as “cool it down.”
Reread
After some time of not being involved with the text — you will be somewhat defamiliarized — previously unnoticed details will emerge, and you will see the cracks in your work.
At this stage, you need to document all the flaws and divided by categories — regarding structure, reasoning, grammar, and style. Usually, it takes several rereads until you notice every mistake.
This stage is vital because while writing, you get used to your text, and things start to slip through.
It may be some grammar mistakes here, unfinished thoughts there, clumsy sentence structures all over the place, repetitions, and other problems invisible while deep in the writing process.
Rewrite / Expand
With your list of problems to be solved finished — you can start fixing them one by one.
While going through the flaws detected in the previous stage, you may see much bigger fundamental problems with your text, and this the right time to do a make-over.
The other thing you may or may not do during this time is expanding the existing arguments. This step is entirely optional, and you may skip it altogether.
After finishing the second draft, you need to retake a break to get the heat off.
Final Edit
Since much of the ground level editing occurs in the previous stages — this stage is more of an insurance check that any actual editing.
It is important to go through the text one final time to make sure that everything in the right place.
If everything is all right, then this stage is nothing more than a simple verifying.
In conclusion
With all that set and done — you may worry no more about being lost in the avocado jungles of writing and meeting cannibal letters with infectious grooves.
Just remember Michel Lotito — smash it all into small bits and move steadily. Nothing beats a tricky subject more than a devised plan. Even more so— plan offers you a bat to deliver a crushing blow with a salvo.
I hope that these tips will help you with your writings.
