Note: These are tips on writing, not final editing. Writing and editing are not the same process, even if they can overlap at points.
1: Start with an idea that gives you energy. How do you know it gives you energy? You should feel tingles in your body. You should want to talk about it at the dinner table. You should find yourself pondering it in the quiet, subtle places in your mind.
2: Write to discover that very idea. Write into the epiphany that hasn’t arrived yet. Don’t expect to know x-y-z about the idea before you write. Sure, you are going to know something about the idea. But stay curious. Let your fingers go faster than your conscious mind. See what your subconscious knows. See what kinds of associations lead you into rich discoveries and new juxtapositions.
3: Write and write and write. Write out three pages of flowing ideas. Be OK with messiness and non-linear thinking. You can clean up the page later.
4: Pause. Take a breath. Feel what you are feeling in your gut.
5: Now, go looking for the first sentence. Where is it? Maybe it is in the middle of the third page?
6: Look for the emotional-intellectual heart of what you are saying. Are you writing into that emotional-intellectual heart?
