Re: Outlining stages

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 2995

Posted by 100341.2151
2005-03-20 12:32:36

Stephen -

> If I go straight to the second stage of outlining, the result tends to be choppy writing. In fact I find no outlining at all is better than starting with stage 2 outlining.

Interesting you should say that. I used conventional single-pane outlining programs (PC-Outline, then GrandView) for about 15 years or so, and found them invaluable for planning and writing lectures: GrandView could generate bullet-point slides via Harvard Graphics or Lotus Freelance. (On reflection I am not so sure the audience found them very entertaining, though :-).)

But I think - as you seem to be suggesting - that one has to be much more careful when using them for any sort of creative writing, academic or otherwise. I often find that, although I have developed a detailed (i.e., stage 2) outline, when it comes to writing I have to backtrack - going back, in fact, to a point - a sort of “hook” - that made the topic initially intersting to me, and starting again from there. This may be just use ideas from one little corner of the outline. When that happens, the outline reverts from being a logical structure of the argument to just being a series of more-or-less useful notes again.

Nowadays, now I am thankfully not required to lecture for a living, I have a suspicion that outlining - especially second-stage outlining - if taken too seriously damages spontaneity (as well as encouraging procrastination - but that is another matter). At least, the idea of straightforwardly “turning” an outline into a piece of writing is probably a mistaken one - though something that the software encourages.

Derek

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