I’ve been doing a lot of writing recently. I’m lucky – I find that words just come out – easily – in torrents. My problem is not writing; its marshalling my thoughts and turning the words into something readable and sensible. When I read back what I’ve written, I invariably think it is too long – too discursive – failing to get to the nub of the matter, to realise the main points of the argument.
Of course I know I should plan, shape and construct – treat writing like any other project. I should do the ‘marshalling of thoughts’ before I put fingers to keyboard. My aims should be clear, I should have thought about the intended audience, identified my aims – and therefore my key points .. and then concentrated on getting across those key messages.
Too many people plan projects how I write. They know what the overall target is but they fail to plan the milestones, the waymarks that signal progress. They ramble around in the general direction of the project aims, consuming resources that need not be deployed – and confusing those who are involved.
It is often easier to work without detailed planning … but it is a wasteful way of working.
So, let’s plan and then focus. We know it makes sense!