Alter your typical approach. Avoid writing an outline. Outlines often restrict ideas if prepared in desperation or too soon in your process. Instead of thinking in terms of structure, develop a series of questions. Don’t respond, just continue with the questions for a full page. They perpetuate forward movement.
A journey with questions will open possibilities you have not considered. You will discover what you’re trying to say while questioning. Questions will help you write beyond frustrations and chronology which both get in the way of creativity.
Here are a few to start your question engine. Remember, write for a page and don't answer them.
What’s beyond the focus of this piece of writing?
What’s necessary to this writing?
What’s troubling about it?
How and where will the reader become most curious ?
What happens next? Then what?
In what ways could I become outrageous with this writing?
Will humor help?
What would the writing say to me in dialogue?
What if I begin with the conclusion?
Would the middle provide a different beginning?
Do I want the reader to follow along, feel frustrated or satisfied with my ending?
What if I leave the ending open to a variety of interpretations?
How will my sentence structure help with the tempo of the writing?
Take a piece of writing that has not performed for you. Ask questions. Ask more. Let them sit for several hours while you’re doing different things. Then return and ask questions of the questions.
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