Page 24 - Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking

Build a structure first. Plan. Use a spreadsheet, outline, or graph paper. You’d
be surprised how many writers of all kinds—speechwriters, newspaper reporters,

novelists, screenplay writers, and so on—first sketch out their ideas in a
structured form. Some use a slideshow program’s outline view to build a

structure on which they can hang all their ideas, and then easily rearrange them
by moving slides around. Use your big ideas as headings. Then break those

down into their component parts. Then explain those parts with sentences.

Just write. Write anything. Write what you ate for breakfast. Just get started

putting something on that blank page. Break that psychological barrier. Know
it’s not going to be perfect yet and be fine with that. It is fine. I promise. You
can cut or edit it later (see section 2.8). But for now, these are your first lines,

you did them, and that’s something.

Write a complete plot summary as your first line. For example:

■ There are solid reasons you and your party members should
completely support State Bill 301b and join our coalition in urging the

governor to sign it.
■ She was a wicked woman, but purely so, and by the time she ruled

the enchanted forest, she’d forgotten what it was like to love.
■ When I think about myself a few years down the road, I see myself

working at Lexxtopia, Inc., managing a team of software developers,
and making the best mobile software on the market.

Tell someone else about your writing. Some people feel that talking to anyone
else will void their ideas of meaning, that in the telling, the magic is gone, and

all that is left is dusty vagueness. But the important part is to ask the other
person to tell your ideas back to you. You’ll probably find yourself wanting to

correct what they’re saying, or add to their words. As the two of you discuss
your project, take notes. Take lots of notes as quickly as you can. Those notes

become your outline.