In The 6 Stages of Writing, I had clarified the components of the Writing Process, and a follow up post discussed these stages as interrelated not separate stages. The first stage of the writing process begins with pre-writing. So this will be the first of a series of posts, which will look at each stage in greater depth. For a definition of each stage you can read my previous posts on this topic.
Pre-writing involves a number of strategies aimed at exploring your topic. Debbie and I found the use of an outline to be most useful. So we will begin first look at this strategy.
OUTLINE: Debby devised the outline based on our discussions. We had an overall theme in it of the importance of compassion. Then we developed a chapter-by-chapter structure based on certain topics we wanted to discuss. Originally our material was intended as a self-growth manual with insights and reflections. Over time, we realized that a narrative style would work better with our ideas and it would prove more interesting for us and readers, since it would involve a journey with each character. Outline can be complex or basic, depending on you and your writing. Here is the structure of our outline:
Main statement of our book: Follow the soul not the ego.
Chapter 1: Opening of novel with dramatic start and introduction to main character and his conflict
Chapter 2: Listening to Higher Guidance
Chapter 3: Introduction to retreat setting and characters there. Talk on trusting your intuition.
Chapter 4: Importance of inner peace
Chapter 5: Importance of motivation
Chapter 6: Compassion demonstrated by the main character
Chapter 7: Call to remove ego’s fear and hurt
Chapter 8: Ego versus soul
Chapter 9: Importance of discovering your Life Purpose and importance of Non-violence
Chapter 10: Fight with lower self or ego
Chapter 11: Violence versus Courage
Chapter 12: Conclusion
This was not our first outline because our story idea had changed from a contemplative book about ideas to a narrative story where readers could experientially understand our insights according to their understanding.
BRAINSTORMING: Basically this is coming up with a lot of ideas quickly without concern about filtering those ideas. These words or thoughts can be the raw material that will develop into a more structured outline. An example of brainstorming:
You can also connect different ideas together with brainstorming like “compassion” and words associated with it can relate them to “connection” and words relating to it. This is called clustering and it is another useful strategy for the pre-writing stage.
CLUSTER:
Clustering allows you to uncover relationships between ideas. It’s like a web of ideas on paper. Here is an example of a cluster.
5 W’S & H: These questions allow you expand on your topic or to clarify your ideas.
5 W’s are:
- Who?
- What?
- When?
- Where?
- Why?
Lone H:
- How?
These questions allow you to quickly develop your topic. Journalists often use these questions to scope out a story, you can use them to better understand your topic.
Pre-writing is a fun stage where your creativity can generate ideas. It’s a stage where your writing project is developing and you are giving your ideas a structure. So use the most appropriate strategy for your pre-writing development of your ideas.
I like the diagrams but they seem to cut off. The brainstorming diagram probably says “kindness” but it only comes out as “kindn.” I don’t think there’s any such word so it’s probably the narrow margins allowed on your site.
You’re right. The margins cut off the word “kindness.” I will shrink the image and fix the problem some time this week. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
The new look for the blog seems to correct the problem with the word “kindness” being cut off now.
nOt enOugh information
pagawa naman poe ng cluster bout sa school ? tnx poe …