Create Structure to Create Ease

I like to think of the organizational structure of a paper or grant like a coat rack for your reader to hang all of your ideas on. If there’s no coat rack, then everything just ends up falling onto the floor and the message is lost.

With a structure in place it allows your reader to see where you are taking them and how all of your ideas come together to create a compelling message and story. Structure makes it easier for you to write and easier for your reader to understand your message. 

Purposefully organizing our ideas is also an opportunity to create interest for the reader through contrast. You can compare and contrast ideas, problems and solutions, or advantages and disadvantages throughout your writing.

One way that you can see new connections or ways of structuring your ideas is to write them on on sticky notes or slides so that you can move them around and see which structures or organizations best create your message.

Here are some questions you can ask to organize your ideas:

• How do my ideas connect together?
• How can I group them together to create sections or topics?
• Could I draw a diagram of how my ideas fit together?

If you are having challenges organizing your ideas go back to filtering your ideas to make sure that you are not overwhelming yourself or your reader with too many ideas. Remember, you can always pull ideas in as you need them and also change your structure as you begin to expand your ideas.

If you are finding organizing your thoughts challenging, please email me at support@melissaEanders.com for a complimentary Discovery Call where we will discuss your challenges and co-create next steps together to help you make writing easier and faster.