Thoughts in the Margins, Part Five: The Nuts and Bolts (Organization is Everything)

Fifth Installment of a Multi-Part Series about Writing Compelling Nonfiction

Frontload, prioritize, and organize. Again: frontload, prioritize, and organize. These three will aid a writer beyond belief and will be helpful regardless of the topic that will be covered. Utilizing these methods consistently strengthens each and every aspect of the writing and publishing process. Following some further unpacking of these beneficial habits will be a discussion regarding best practices related to pulling quotes, taking notes, and emphasizing the value of doing these things by hand. Even here, however, as will be seen, the ethos of organization looms large.

Frontload

            I quickly decided that the first chapter would act as a broad overview and introduction and the last chapter would act as the work’s conclusion (in the process of updating the thesis into a book, these chapters lost the “Chapter” designation entirely, at the request of the publisher, and simply became “Introduction” and “Conclusion,” respectively). I then had eight chapters to coordinate the various history into, and figuring out this part of the development of the book was not a process finished after the first attempt. Just as with any written draft, it took some level of honing and revisions to finally have the chapter-by-chapter layout of the book more or less decided. This part of the process transpired long before overt research and writing for the project commenced. The magnitude of this exercise cannot be stressed enough. Do not merely have the general arc of your nonfiction work outlined prior to the deeper work beginning. It is also critically important to have a strong sense of what each chapter will cover as well. If you are asked to describe the book you are about to write and are unable to describe—to some degree—what each chapter will discuss, you are not yet ready to begin writing, nor are you ready to begin your research. Having parameters for what each chapter covers acts as a guide for your research. A chapter-by-chapter outline acts as the skeletal framework for the muscle and flesh that is eventually applied to the work. Muscle and flesh thrown together without structure and intent is fated to be an amorphous blob: without form, nor any ability to move.

            Frontloading is more than doing that work that can be done first. Though that is an important aspect of frontloading, and the principle does not work without it, there is far more to it when approaching the writing of a nonfiction work, particularly a book. The practice of frontloading work also includes a sense of structure and how one can inform the success of later stages of the work by doing all that is possible to make the process smooth and clear.

Prioritize

            Prioritizing is an act that functions on many levels. It includes the kind of prioritization discussed earlier in this work, including the importance of prioritizing the writing of a certain number of pages or words each day. It is also something, however, that can be exercised in a separate sense, and in a way that overlaps with frontloading. One key example is the benefit of prioritizing and frontloading chapters you may be able to write—or write in part—prior to the bulk of the research phase. Whether this option exists at an early stage for a nonfiction writer depends largely on the strength of previous knowledge. There may be no chapters, in part or in full, that can be written. Conversely, you may have enough previous knowledge and education about the subject at hand to write an introduction or some part of an early draft of a particular chapter. Though this is not something that will be a possibility for each and every potential nonfiction writer, it may well apply to some.

            In my case, I was able to write an early draft of the introductory chapter and a significant amount of what would become Chapter Seven in Rights Reign Supreme, because I had done substantial graduate work in those areas and was thus able to exploit previous research and prior work I had conducted. Nevertheless, both of these chapters required additional research. I used the Ramos v. Louisiana case as a portal for introducing the topic and intent of the book in its earliest section. I had found interest in what was a very recent Supreme Court decision (a matter of months earlier) and saw the case as a vehicle for drawing the intellectual connection of the principle of judicial review and a recent controversy that my readers would understand as relevant because it acted as a manifestation of that very principle (there is another lesson here: keep your eyes and ears open to current events because they may in some way relate to the history you are discussing). The introduction required a level of scholarly research in order to understand the case and underscore its relevance to the thesis. Chapter Seven of the book was similar. Although I had done considerable graduate work regarding the intellectual history that informed the American Founding, there was substantial work yet to be done. The work I conducted, for example, that traced the connection between natural rights theory, the political philosophy of John Adams, the difference between common legislation and constitutions, and the evolution of constitution-making in the early 1780s, could not have been achieved without additional research and analysis.

            Once I had drafts of these sections/chapters, the beginnings of a thesis, of a book, emerged. Note that the first chapters or sections of the book that I wrote were not chronological. Quite the contrary, in fact. The introduction was both an overview and a teaser for what was to come in the book, and discussed history that was prior to the general timeline otherwise discussed. Chapter Seven similarly was one that departed from the timeline. I knew that I would only tackle the writing of the concluding chapter once every other chapter had been written and—for the most part—fully revised. It is important to keep in mind that even though the focus of each chapter should be known prior to writing your book, the research and resulting analysis may bring you to data and positions you could not previously predict. For this reason, leave the conclusion as truly the last thing you write. There will be gold you find in the interim (between the early part of the research and writing process and when you near the end) and you may well want to reassert some of the important discoveries you have made along the way that have been mentioned in chapters throughout the book.

            It was understood, then, that I would not write the conclusion until I was otherwise done (with the very important caveat that I did substantial revisions and additions again once the thesis was being converted into a book). This means that it became clear, in the early months of the process, that much of the rest of the book could be written chronologically, but this knowledge was nuanced by the fact that one of the late chapters (Chapter Seven) would depart from the chronology. Having this knowledge in advance of writing the rest of the chapters meant that I could anticipate when it would be helpful to readers to know that there would be moments that history would bounce around between eras a bit. Of course, knowing what each chapter was going to cover also meant I could preview this information at the end of the introduction, arming readers with a mapping statement.

            By prioritizing the work I knew could get done in the early stages, and frontloading that work, combined with having done the planning of what each chapter would cover, I had set myself up for some level of success. This, speaking only to the practical things I was able to do regarding organization and planning, and leaving any certain writing ability on my part for others to decide for themselves.

Organize

            Organizing, however, connects to far more than that which has been discussed. It is also a key method beneficial to the research process as well. Though this will be covered to some extent in the next sections, it is worth noting that organization is as critical to successful research as it is to successful writing. Much of this research-related organizing is informed and supported, however, by the legwork conducted in the earliest stages of the project, including the chapter-by-chapter outline discussed above.

            Because a chapter-by-chapter outline should already be drafted prior to the research and writing stage, it can then be used as a means for organizing the notes and quotes written and pulled for the project. Using my own work again as an example, the book was ultimately designed into the following sections and chapters: Introduction, Chapter One: Primary Source Analysis, Chapter Two: Judicial Review Scholarship (Historiography), Chapter Three: The Alien and Sedition Acts and Nullification (i.e.: State Review), Chapter Four: Marbury, McCulloch, Barron, and Stuart, Chapter Five: Indian Removal and Dred Scott, Chapter Six: Privileges or Immunities and the Fourteenth Amendment, Chapter Seven: Rights, Chapter Eight: Rights Assertions via the Court, and Conclusion.

            Having thought ahead and planned for what each chapter would cover, I could then focus my research into these discrete categories. This facilitated focus and lent itself to further organization, almost by default, thereafter. For example, if while researching for my chapter on the creation of the Fourteenth Amendment, I discovered something noteworthy about the Dred Scott case (one of the relevant cases discussed that preceded the Fourteenth Amendment chapter—in the book and in the writing process), I would add the relevant data to my Dred Scott chapter research pile. This allowed not only for relevant data to be placed into the most appropriate areas in the research process, but also meant that chapters that had already been written—and in many cases, revised—could be improved upon as more historical information was discovered. The process of concerted organization of the writing process (such as utilizing distinct notepads, folders, storage areas, etc., for specific chapters) meant that chapters that were not actively being worked on at a given moment nevertheless improved. This was because nothing was thrown out due to a lack of relevance to the current chapter being researched, or due to a chapter already being supposedly finished. As a result, virtually every chapter of the book was improved upon.

Notes and Quotes

            The writing of notes and pulling of quotes benefits greatly from this same devotion to organization. The advice below is practical and may be, to some, obvious. Regardless, some of the most obvious methods only work if they are utilized. It should first be emphasized here (as it will be again later, and still later again) that it is strongly advised to do as much of your notetaking and quote-pulling by hand. Modern technology has allowed for the easy copy and pasting of quotes, but the writing of pertinent notes by hand (including primary and secondary source quotes) is far more useful. You are much more likely to absorb and retain the information you are digging through (which is the point, isn’t it?) when you write it down with your own hand. Let this fact sink in if you are serious about your project: the pen is mightier than the laptop. As you pull quotes, whether it is from secondary source scholarship you find useful or primary sources relevant to your topic, organize a quote bank for each chapter. This is crucial. So many writers do so much on the organization front, and yet when they begin the heavy research process, they throw all of their quotes (and sometimes also their notes) into one enormous pile. Why would you do this?! As you are sure to include the relevant info for a quote in your notes (including author of quote, date, source, and—if available—page number), know that it is going to be stored in a quote bank specific to a certain chapter. Don’t give yourself the unnecessary work of later digging through all of your quotes to try to figure out where in your book they all should go. Have this figured out as you do your research. Your life and your process will be easier for having done so. There will be times, of course, that a quote you thought would be relevant turns out not to be and it is discarded. In fact, if at the end of the entire process you do not have quotes that are never used, you have probably done only a slight level of research and it is not a good sign. Something quite amazing can also happen—as it happened to me a number of times in my own process: a quote was found to not be needed or to have no relevance to the chapter I had intended it for, but through the writing process it may became relevant to some analysis in a different chapter. When this phenomenon happens, it is quite exhilarating and satisfying. This tends to happen in the late stages of the writing process, most of the quotes and analysis have found their home. Then, as you are writing something, you realize you are offering an observation that can be bolstered by a quote, originally intended for a different chapter, that you had not used. Having utilized your own hand to write these notes and quotes down, by the way, is what informs this ability. A quote you read once, copied and pasted into a word doc, and never considered again, is nowhere near as likely to come to mind when opportunity knocks.

            Next, in the conclusion of this how-to guide, the main bits of advice that have thus far been presented will be highlighted one last time. More importantly, with the help of some images related to my own journey through writing a master’s thesis, adapting it into a book, and navigating the publishing process, you will be able to see with your own eyes examples related to frontloading, prioritizing, and organization. This should ultimately be of some help to you regarding your process of research and writing, whether you are planning to write an essay, an article, a thesis, or a book. The conclusion, then, acts as this manual’s quick guide for those things you can do to increase the chances of success with your project.

[James M. Masnov is a writer, historian, and lecturer, and a Columbian Distinguished Fellow at George Washington University in Washington, DC. He has been a contributor at Pure Insights, the Brownstone Institute, Armstrong Journal of History, the Oregon Encyclopedia, among other publications. His newest book, Rights Reign Supreme: An Intellectual History of Judicial Review and the Supreme Court, is available here. His first book, History Killers and Other Essays by an Intellectual Historian, is available here.]