Bullet point planning

Stage 1

Writing dot points to ease into your text, and keep your structure and focus.

Stage 2a

  • planning is an essential part of writing

  • write plan down — summary sentences then bullet points

  • review plan / play with structure

  • expand bullet points out

  • makes writing smoother, easier to tackle project

  • full document plan/overview keeps you on track

  • ? wrap up

Stage 2b

  • planning is an essential part of writing

    • sometimes written, sometimes mental

    • sometimes conscious (dedicating time), sometimes background (eg doing dishes)

    • not writing vs writing

  • write plan down — summary sentences then bullet points

    • tangible

    • overview of structure

    • can see holes, gaps

    • can see repetition

    • avoid tangents, losing track of purpose

  • review plan / play with structure

    • move bullet points around

    • linear ‘story’, or another kind of structure?

    • update purpose/objective if not working out

  • expand bullet points out

    • keywords become sentences

    • sentences become paragraphs

    • paragraphs become complete article (wow)

  • makes writing smoother, easier to tackle project

    • big job made smaller

    • get stuck? refer to bullet points

    • easier to start from something than nothing

  • full document plan/overview keeps you on track

    • building whole doc keeps original purpose clear

    • easy to get lost in free writing

  • ? wrap up

    • warning: don’t get stuck in planning stage 

Stage 3

When you’ve got a writing idea brewing, what kind of planning process do you go thru to take it to its final form?

For me, the planning is sometimes an intentional, conscious effort: I make my notes, do my research, talk to friends and colleagues, give time and space for my thinking processes. 

Other times, the planning happens more in the background: I let the ideas come together while I’m doing other things (eg, the dishes). 

When I’ve got a project that I want to intentionally plan, I like to take a visual, tangible approach. This helps to give me an overview of the structure, to see holes and gaps in the message, and to spot unwanted repetition (or plan desirable repetition). A written plan that I can refer back to while writing also helps me to avoid veering away from my original purpose or message.

It’s not hard to plan a text.

First, start with a sentence or two that summarises your intention and message. This is the key point, the purpose of your article. This is why you are writing, and what you are writing about.

Next, jot down your ideas as bullet point notes. They don’t need to be complete or grammatically correct sentences — better if they aren’t in fact, as it makes for easier skim-reading. The goal now is just to capture the essence of your ideas, to get the ‘skeleton’ of your text in place.

Once your idea bones are there, you can step back and take an objective look.

  • Does the structure work?

  • How would it look if you swapped some key points around?

  • Is your purpose clear?

  • Is your original objective still valid, or has something new emerged?

Finish him!

The final stage (before revision) is to put the flesh onto your skeleton text. Turn your bullet point keywords and fragments into whole sentences. Join your sentences into paragraphs. Build your paragraphs into a complete article.

Taking these gentle, iterative steps can turn a hefty project into a near painless experience. After all, scribbling down a few bullet points isn’t hard, is it…? And once you’ve got those notes, it’s not too much of a stretch to bulk them out into whole sentences, and then full sections.

If you get stuck with your writing, you can refer back to your bullet points, get a little reminder of where you were going. You might yet change things along the way, but this basic planning process will help you keep your focus, hold onto your structure and maintain your original objectives.

There’s just one caution that goes with this method: don’t allow your planning and structure development to turn into a form of procrastination. If you find yourself colour-coding your bullet points, it’s time to give yourself a shake and get on with it!

(See what I did there? 😁 )