But here’s the thing—writing isn’t like driving from
Point A to Point B. Sometimes it’s good to get lost in words and ideas and
information. Sometimes you stumble upon marvelous things as you blindly try to
find you way.
When I share my philosophy with other nonfiction writers,
they are very skeptical. They insist that I MUST outline. I must have a general
sense of order, at least in my head if not on paper. And maybe they’re right.
But if it’s sitting there in one part of my brain, the writing part of my brain
must choose to ignore it—at least to a certain extent.
I have to admit, though, that I like the idea that
Colleen Cruz and Lucy Calkins suggest in The
Art of Information Writing. They don’t talk about starting with an outline.
They talk about starting with a Table of Contents (Brownie points for
integrating a text feature into an instructional strategy.).
Colleen and Lucy see a TOC as a way to get from Point A to Point B. Not the way. To emphasize this point, they encourage students to play
around with their Table of Contents, considering various options. The point is
that the same information can be structured in different ways, resulting in
radically different books. And some of those books will be more interesting
than others.
What I like most
about this way of thinking is the idea that no writing plan needs to be set in
stone. Writers should stay open minded and take time to consider alternate
routes throughout the writing process.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, even though I don’t usually write outlines, sometimes I am contractually required to submit one. And that’s what happened with Deadliest Animals. Here’s what I sent to my editor:
Table of Contents
Intro 4-5
Mighty Hunters 6-11
--Lion
--Polar bear
--Saltwater crocodile
Big and Brutal 12-17
--Hippo
--Elephant
--Cape buffalo
Scary Snakes 18-21
--Cobra
--Beaked sea snake
Ferocious Fish 22-27
--Great white shark
--Stonefish
--Puffer fish
--Stonefish
--Puffer fish
No Bones
About It 28-33
--Blue-ringed octopus
--Box jellyfish
--Blue-ringed octopus
--Box jellyfish
--Cone
shell
Small But
Deadly 34-43
--Poison dart frog
--Poison dart frog
--Cane
Toad
--Bees
--Scorpions
--Funnel
web spider
Deadliest
of All 44-45
--Mosquito
(includes conclusion)
Glossary
46
Index 48
There are a few interesting things to note about this
outline.
- It’s pretty
similar to the final book, which sort of surprised me when I looked back
at it. What I remember most about writing the book was my decision to
expand the introduction as I wrote the first draft. But because the intro
includes the lion, I only ended up cutting one animal (the cane toad)
later.
- I didn’t provide
any details about what the intro would be—the whole idea of readers being
surprised. I’m not sure if that’s because I was still working it out in my
head or if I decided to keep the approach to myself until the editor could
see it fully developed.
- This isn’t a
very detailed outline. I probably should have submitted something a bit
more fleshed out. I think the editor must have trusted me because I’d
already written several books for the series. But as they say, all’s well
that ends well.