Brainstorming

"Gee Mary, what are we going to write about?" "I don't know, Milo, Let's brainstorm!" After researching, interviewing and gathering up all the information about your main topic, grab a legal pad or open a file on your computer and list all the possible topics and subtopics you can think of and craft them in short sentences, leaving a blank line between each entry. Pretty soon, you will have a good list of items before you. These are your temporary headings.

Now, cut your headings apart and study them. Select the most important or interesting items and cull out the also-rans. The next step is to lay them out in decreasing order of importance or interest. You'll probably find that some specific or supportive headings fit under broader general headings, so arrange or group them in that order.

You will wind up with a main heading as below and several supportive headings that fit under them in descending or hierarchical order. Next, study the supportive headings and try to find specific information about each one. Next, list these supportive facts beneath each broader heading in descending order of importance.

We are designing an inverted pyramid of information with the most important topics at the top and the specific information in descending order of importance below. The main reason for this, outside of linear thinking and order is simply: if readers become bored or run out of time to finish the document, they will at least have read the most pertinent information.

House

Construction

Permits

Foundation

Framing

Truses

Sheeting

Roofing

Finish

Heating & Cooling

Appliances

Doors

Frames

Transomes

Blanks

Hinges

Locks

Windows

Frames

Glass

Locks

Shutters

Floors

Joists

Sub Flooring

Finish Flooring

Carpets

padding

tackless strips

glue

Now, you have your writing project laid out in a sensible, linear order and are ready to write. At this point, you can take just one little section at a time in any order you like and complete it or write as much as you can before studying it further. The nice thing is you can fill in the sections in any order you like. This process works on any project from a three hundred word essay to a complete book. Naturally, during the writing process, should you find further information, you can just plug it in to the appropriate level.

Here's another tip: when writing a large project, divide it up into many sections. That way, you can plug in extras you didn't think of at the beginning of the project, remove sections you find don't quite fit and make all the corrections you wish, without having to rewrite the whole document. All you ever have to do is revise one section at a time, without affecting the whole project.

Some word processors like M.S. Word allow such a hierarchy to be created under a "Master Document." That is even nicer as not only can you edit and move sections, but you can move supportive information from one section to the next, up or down, at will. Later, when the project is completed, you can print it out, complete with a table of contents and an index. Yes, the pages will all be numbered in the correct order, and the index will refer to the correct pages.

The author of this web site, William L. Lampe is available for
Business Communications, Technical and Copy Writing assignments
through his Editorial Services Consulting Agency,
The A-Company, established 1970.

Brainstorming

House

Return to Writers Workshop Index

Go To Main- Lots of Neat Stuff!