I write in paragraphs. I sharpen a handful of pencils and set them on the table next to a fresh yellow legal pad. I write one paragraph on a piece of paper and go to the next piece of paper. I end up with a pile of paragraphs that I can rearrange easily. Paragraphs. One thought per paragraph.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I never followed Chris’ advice per the yellow legal pad and handful of sharp pencils as the\u00a0 word processors arrived soon thereafter. The paragraph idea, however, stuck with me.<\/p>\n
One thought per paragraph.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I make a loose outline or mind map for what I intend to write. I take each thought and write a paragraph around it. It all sounds simple and works most of the time.<\/p>\n
The concept also drives my editing or rewriting phase of writing. I reformat my draft on a word processor. I change the left margin to 0.3″ and the right margin to 3.0″. I ensure there is a sizable space between paragraphs. This provides space to write to the right of each paragraph.<\/p>\n
I read each paragraph and ask myself, “What does this say?” I write the answer to the right. If I cannot find one, single topic for the paragraph, I write a big question mark to the right.<\/p>\n
I then read the topics in sequence. Does the writing flow from paragraph to paragraph? If not, I move the paragraphs about until the thoughts flow as I want.<\/p>\n
A short, casual conversation made all the difference for all these years. Chris Bachman died a couple years after the conversation. My first son carries his name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Dwayne Phillips A technique that I use in writing and editing concentrates on the paragraph. It works for me. As with all writing tips, I suggest you try it. If it work, use it. If it doesn’t, move on. Thirty years ago, Chris Bachman took the time to converse with a 21-year-old kid from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[128],"class_list":["post-321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321\/revisions\/323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}