How I use Outlines to Write Any Text

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How I use Outlines to Write Any Text

The Zettelkasten note-taking method has made book writing and writing scientific papers easy for hundreds of years already.

Read the full story here

haribol

N.B.: This link currently referenced in the last paragraph is no longer good: "The smaller my toolkit, the less I have to rely on others."

I found a current link that works, https://frankchimero.com/blog/2014/no-new-tools/

ctietze

Thanks for reporting this! Fixed it, will update in a sec!

nickmilo22

Really enjoyed reading the outlined screenshot and getting a glimpse of your outline for the article. I appreciate the Behind the Scenes

grayen

@ctietze Thanks for the post, it was an interesting read! Outside making some rough overview of things, I never really leveraged outlining. I might have missed it, but I am very curious, does this mean that all your latest Zettels are written as outlines too? Or are they only done so initially?

ctietze

In my David Epstein verzetteling Videos, you see I do all kinds of things in practice. Sometimes I start with a quote and comment on in, but for structure notes or the book overview, I start with an outline and stay in its confines.

I also don't outline my forum posts. At least not many. And most blog posts stem from observation or "lab" notes while I am programming, which doesn't really qualify as an outline. But this technique is still useful, even though I don't use it for every text

bforbes

I've had to learn how to use outlines as an adult, too, and appreciate this post. Am curious, though: An outline is a bridge between the non-hierarchical nature of the Zettelkasten and the hierarchical (in a productive way) organization of a paper. Given that, why do you use bullet points instead of the numerical (I, a), i) structure of an outline in a text editor like Word? It's easier to see "parent" thoughts and how they flow to examples, and moving isn't an issue because the numbers adjust to the move immediately.

ctietze

@bforbes No strong reason, just fuzzy feelings. I like bullets more I have a bit of a harder time looking past numbers instead of asterisks or dashes. But some editors help there, offering to tone-down the color of the list enumerators so they don't stand out as much. And this would probably get better with practice. An outline is an ordered list, and thus numbers would fit better to convey the order. Semantically, its the better choice. I find bullets to be more playful, sandbox-y, malleable.

The text editor I'm using in the screenshot doesn't automatically tidy up lists when I move items, so the numbers would be off at first. Similarly, the indentation level is just more spaces at the beginning of the line, and the editor is not aware of the kind of list at the point. So outdenting would not promote the item in a hierarchy, changing from a) to iii) to 2. or similar. -- I don't think that's the strongest reason in my book, though. There are other editors which can do this just fine. I think I'd still prefer not to see numbers

bforbes

@ctietze Thank you for replying! That makes a lot of sense, especially the playful, sandbox-y, malleable nature of bullet points. (I see them so often in PowerPoint, where they can become problematic.) I write in Word, and the tidying up is an awesome aspect (there are, of course, issues with Word but this is not one of them).

GeoEng51

@bforbes I work a lot in Scrivener - taking notes from various review meetings, recording thoughts and ideas, summarizing books and articles, etc. I use bullet points a lot. Unlike @ctietze I think I prefer a numbered/lettered system, but then I’m pretty flexible and can work with indented bullet points as well. It’s just that if you indent more than once, it becomes difficult tracking what level you are at (or why).

IvanFerrero

So how about using a tool such as Workflowy or Checkvist?
I'm evaluating plain text over bullet points for my notes.

(If you think it's better to open a new thread, please let me know)

FernandoNobel

Thank you very much for writing this post in the past!

I used to do shorter outlines, but I've found that writing detailed outlines (as the one you show) helps me a lot when writing the first draft :-)

Does anyone have any references for more outline-related ideas?

Amontillado

Nice thoughts!

I like the idea of outlines using short synopses instead of one line topic titles. I generally outline in only one or two levels and I don't think of it as an outline in the Harvard sense of the word.

It's more like a storyboard in text. The manuscript is a linear presentation, so I like to plan in a linear style, too.

Of course, that's the meanderings of a wannabe writer who works 50-60 hours a week at a soul-fatiguing job instead of writing. I'm not a model of productivity.

ctietze

@Amontillado Can you provide a link you find useful for "outlines in the Harvard sense of the word" maybe?

Amontillado

@ctietze said:
@Amontillado Can you provide a link you find useful for "outlines in the Harvard sense of the word" maybe?

I probably could have worded my post better. Traditional outlines, at least when I write them, tend to become fact organization instead of a map of the story.

Here's a Harvard outline example I found: https://frontdoor.valenciacollege.edu/file/rschachel/Basic Outline Format harvard.pdf

This isn't bad, except for stanza IV which has four levels. If that works, it's great, but if I write from a plan focused on categorization I'll likely drill down into trivia before setting forth the overall topology of my point.

Four levels isn't too deep. I remember once writing an outline that went to six or seven levels. I eventually got the story written. Those first drafts were awful.

In either persuasive or creative writing it's easy for a hierarchical plan to turn into a fact dump instead of a story or presentation of a case.

I guess I consider a skeletal "draft zero" my outline. A few hundred words describing what will be a 20,000 word piece.

Please understand that while I claim writer's DNA from my upbringing, I have not been a productive writer. I wrote news for about five years and have written my share of documentation for employers. Hemingway, I'm not - and I really appreciate the hospitality here.

Nido

Joseph A. Laronge constructs arguments as outlines as on page 12 of this pdf: https://inferenceincourt.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/gre-argument-task-demo.pdf

Amontillado

I think I need to stop referring to my planning as outlining. Perhaps I should call them block diagrams.

sylvaticus

sadly, the frank chimero post linked at the end is no longer there.

sylvaticus

this was a really good article! thank you 🙏

ctietze

@sylvaticus said:
sadly, the frank chimero post linked at the end is no longer there.

geeee, what do people do to their blogs all the time

Here's an archived one:

https://web.archive.org/web/20200920161518/https://frankchimero.com/blog/2014/no-new-tools/

Updated the post 👍

sylvaticus

lol right? thank you 🙃

FernandoNobel

@ctietze said:

@sylvaticus said:
sadly, the frank chimero post linked at the end is no longer there.

geeee, what do people do to their blogs all the time

Here's an archived one:

https://web.archive.org/web/20200920161518/https://frankchimero.com/blog/2014/no-new-tools/

Updated the post 👍

Thank you for the archived post. It is also a great one :-)