Gordon, do you have any advice regarding this...?

Thanks Gordon for pointing out this web site (and for all your very helpful advice as well)....

Gordon, I've found that myself, I have no problem writing short articles. But when it comes to writing something large -- like a book -- I become daunted... The idea of sticking to one train of thought for that long....

Do you have any advice for someone who might have a problem like this?

By the way, I have written ONE long "work" -- my Ph.D. thesis. But, in reality, my thesis was a series of research articles slapped together... I struggled to make my diverse range of articles sound like it was really a coherent piece of work on a single theme.... (I guess I convinced them in the end that it was, though it was tough!)

I was wondering, do you think that if you are better at writing short articles, it might be better to write "books" which are a series of essays? I don't know if you've seen any of his books, but there's a biologist, Stephen Jay Gould, who writes popular science books which are like that, simply collections of his (quite fascinating) essays about the phenomenon of living things....

Gordon, do you have any helpful advice regarding this?

- Dien

Dien --

In recent years I've had to write both long and short pieces - sometimes on the same day! For a certain magazine we would write short "tips" or 25 to 50 words. So we might be assigned "How to set up a network - 50 words" or "Setting up Dial Up Networking - 25 words". Of course neither of these topics could be covered in that short of a space but that is what was asked of us. Generally we were able to pull it off to the editors satisfaction.

About longer pieces. We just released "The Book That Should Have Come With Your Computer" on CD-ROM. Sales have been good. It weighs in right at 400 pages. Granted we had three authors but there is a technique to it all. A four hundred page how-to book is just a series of short articles tied together with supporting material.

So I start in Word for Windows in Outline mode. Learn to use this as it formats your documents into styles as you go. Styles are important since for consistent formatting later. I outline to smaller and smaller levels until I run out ideas. Then spend some time refining that and moving the outline into the order I want. If I have some ideas I'll put them in place as well.

After all this I start fleshing the whole thing out. Each outline item turns into a paragraph and things move along quickly. If I have short articles that might apply I drop them in where appropriate.

That is basically how I do things maybe it'll help you. The key being that minute outline levels give you simple chunks to work on. I seem to remember Gordon mentioning leaving a half written sentence at the end of each writing session. That idea helped me a lot also.

-- Dan Butler
The Naked PC

> Gordon, I've found that myself, I have no
> problem writing short articles. But when it
> comes to writing something large -- like a
> book -- I become daunted... The idea of
> sticking to one train of thought for that
> long....




The Book That Makes Your Computer Fun Again...

Hi Dan,

Thanks.... I thought that was great advice!

I think if I plan each book as a series of related articles, I might be able to write it better.... I guess the key would be in planning what the "articles" (i.e. chapters) will be about in the beginning....

I've never used Word for Windows Outline mode, so I'll check it out.... :)

Thanks, I really appreciate your advice! :)

- Dien