At some point, every serious writer is forced to sit down and conclude that there is something seriously wrong with their work. It wanders. It is pretty in some spots and horribly ugly in others. It doesn't always make sense, and is uneven in places. Even though every sentence is grammatically correct, there is something fundamentally broken about
piece.It lacks structure.
Structure is what holds a good piece of writing together, material reflection of reader's mental need for order. It is quality that makes best writing appear seamless, conjured whole from heaven itself. Structure is logical mind's contribution to a creative process, and a primary difference between professional writing and amateur scribbling: a conscious decision and a learned skill.
Being in many ways very essence of writing, structure isn't mastered overnight. But there are a few rules of thumb that can help you improve organizational readability of your work:
Establish a logical order to your presentation.
Ignore all popular advice to "write like you talk"; that's a misguided appeal to conversational tone usage and a shortsighted encouragement for people who are terrified to put pen to page. In order to master structure, you must learn to write deliberately and with forethought. Plan what you're going to write and how you're going to write it: don't make it up as you go along, particularly when you are writing nonfiction of any kind.
In nonfiction writing (which means anything that isn't fiction), room for art is small. Don't set out to create art - build a sturdy framework, as a skilled attorney would build a legal argument; make your supporting points early and establish logical flow to consequences and conclusions. Don't loop back and make points at word 800 that you should have made at word five.
Make your points quickly - write in 300 word chunks.
That's magic number: 300. Books are typically printed with about 300 words to a page; magazine articles will usually be divided into roughly 300 word chunks; an effective press release, page of website copy or newsletter article won't run much above 300 words. Any longer and your reader will notice that something is off about your piece. Too much longer and your reader will get bored. For some reason, human mind seems to be most comfortable reading at 300-word length.
