Writing vs. editing

Subject: Writing vs. editing
From: Mary Shaw <MSHAW -at- MONEYNET -dot- COM>
Date: Fri, 18 Apr 1997 10:52:25 -0400

Jody R. Lorig wrote:
>> Some time ago I read an article
>> that spoke of different writing
>> methods and dealing with writer's
>> block. The first method spoke of
>> correcting and polishing the writing
>> as you went. The other method
>> mentioned was "bulldosing".
>>
>> With the polishing, the writer often
>> gets caught up in details and
>> loses the major direction of thought
>> that the writing is pursuing,
>> resulting in writer's block.

Being a perfectionist, I can't help but polish as I go. To avoid losing
direction as I get caught up in details, I first create an outline of the
manual, with all the chapter/section headings. I then write the basic
introductory stuff and create headings for subsections. Once I get to
that point, the general structure of the document is defined, so I can go
through each section and simply "fill in the blanks" as carefully as I want
to.

-- Mary
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/MTShaw/

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