Don't Put Your Ice Cream in the Cupboard

By Connie S. Hall

When you are writing, don’t change back and forth from one topic to another. Good writing is like a blueprint. It requires preparation, a good design, and construction. Disorganized ideas don’t work. Keep related items together.

Where do you begin to organize your work? Start at the beginning and finish at the end. Each paragraph should tell about one main situation and each paragraph should lead directly to the next. You join all the paragraphs with an introduction and a conclusion.

What comes next? If you are like me, you start moving the bits and pieces around. You hop, skip, and jump about to see which words fit where. Next, lay the pieces out in what looks like some order, as though you were putting a puzzle together. Add to your ideas. Be careful you put in the correct ingredients to complete the picture you are drawing.

Don’t let barriers come between you and the reader. Respect the reader by giving them an organized story they can follow. Be orderly and keep everything in its own place. Yes, like Ice cream in the freezer and cookies in the cupboard.