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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/1700
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/1700
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Close the intro. Promise yourself that you will write it last.

Start a blank Scrivener page.

Start writing down everything that comes into your head about the topic. Follow your thoughts wherever they lead, but make each thought a new line. Don't organize; just write.

When you run out of steam, go back to the top of the list, look at each thought, and see if it generates more stuff.

Keep doing that until you can't think of more stuff to add to the list.

Now that you have a list of stuff, start grouping it. Since I know squat-all about programming, I'll use gardening for my example.

- Group A: planting
- Group B: weeding
- Group C: harvest
- Group D: insecticides
- Group E: types of plants
- Group F: organic
- Group G: color
- Group H: season

and so on. Just put the letter (A) in front of any statement to do with planting.

Make new pages for each of the Groups. Copy everything with an A to the A:Planting page. Copy everything with a B to the B:Weeding page.

The lovely thing about Scrivener is that you don't have to put stuff in order yet. So once you have all your F:Organic statements together, just start writing. Do an info dump of everything you know about Organic Gardnening. When you run out of stuff, go to whatever topic strikes your fancy next.

After a while, you will have enough information to see how your book should be structured, or you can find an editor who can help you organize everything. You can drag your pages around any way you like.

The important thing is to get it all typed out. You can rearrange once you've gotten it on the page.

Original score: 45