Outlines in a New Light

[Feb 02 assignment - Murray ch 9]

The notion of outlining is indeed something hammered into young minds during schooling. It's a method that can indeed aid the writer greatly, but having been taught it in such a horrid fashion I've been unable to utilize it well. Murray has pointed out the perfect middle ground; simply experimenting and finding SOME form of summary for your thoughts, creating your own layout. I'm fortunate to have already stumbled across my own form, though I had not considered it as such until reading his suggestions.

Using a program called Freemind, I create mindmaps about everything. Game ideas, book ideas, assignments, notes for class; EVERYTHING. I never thought of them as outlines because I thought of them as traditional mindmaps, but Murray opened my eyes to seeing that the mindmap essentially IS an outline, just in nonlinear form. As a programmer who takes Object-Orientation very seriously, this bridging of the gap between the linear and the non, the 'procedural' and the 'OO', really caused me to rethink my thinking about thinking.

As I'm already in the process of programming non-linear information, I'm constantly analyzing the flow of information. What are all the things I could POSSIBLY want to do with this data, and how could I provide means of doing those things in the most efficient way possible? This is what I must constantly ask, and answer. To think of mindmaps as providing the functionality of outlines (while remaining distant from childhood nightmares) permits for freer flow of thought, which increases productivity.

“Find ANY method that works,” he says, “if you even need to use outlines.”

Now that's a nice, unassuming way to put things. When phrased in a gentle manner that doesn't push the reader, suggesting that one use outlines doesn't have the same effect. The outline goes from being your nasty cousin who you're FORCED to play with, to your favourite cousin who you can always exchange the latest news and ideas with (and who you feel privileged to play with).