Day 15: Organization

Organization is something that some of us are good at, and others of us are not.  How many of your write by setting up a real, traditional outline before you begin?  Most people don't write that way.  If you do... you're special.

I do not write that way.

I sometimes, when I'm struggling, do something called boxing.

If I know that I have to write say 10 pages, and usually essays work out to be about 250 words a page in MLA formatting, then I'll take out 10 physical sheets of notebook paper.



Then, I'll start to box out a loose outline of how I want to fill in those 10 pages.

I'm make a box, and jot down a point that I want to make there, then make another box, and jot town the topic of my next paragraph.  It's like loose outlining but in physical space...

If this doesn't sound like it will work for you, BY ALL MEANS don't do it.

Or, I'll just jot down an interesting idea.  Then, I'll hit the enter key a couple times and jot down another interesting idea that may be somewhat related.  Then, I'll keep doing that until I have a Word document of some really interesting ideas.  Then, I go back and connect the dots, cut out the ideas that weren't so great, and make it flow.

But, you should do some kind of preplanning to help your organization not be like a hot plate of spaghetti.  (No. Spaghetti is good.  Maybe like a hot plate of prickly tentacles.  Yeah.  That works.)

Chapter 6 of Envision in Depth begins with an image of a film storyboard for the movie Serenity.  (I haven't seen it.  If you have, let me know if it's any good.  Also, notice how movie titles are italicized.  The rule is: If it can be published on its own, italicize it.  If it's published with other things like poems or short stories, put the title in quotation marks.)  All right.  So, movies actually give us a really interesting sense of how organization can be handled.  Chapter 6 gives the example of Kill Bill, Vol 1.  There are three images there from the film and their organization presents a certain kind of narrative.

If we watch the trailer, what kind of narrative do we get from the film?  What things do we see again and again that help tie the progression of images together?  How does sound help the organization?

How many cuts are in this short little trailer? (DON'T TRY TO COUNT THEM...  though you could try to count the number of cuts in one scene, such as the number of cuts there are in the kitchen fight scene.)  Films use cuts, shots, scenes, and so on to organize their content.  Essays use words, sentences, paragraphs, and so on to find their way to organization.

So, how is Kill Bill, Vol. 1 organized?  The same way that every kung fu movie is organized.

Hero kills bad guy.  Then another bad guy.  Then another bad guy until...

He (or she) gets to the big bad guy and kills them.  That's how every kung fu movie is organized.  That's how Kill Bill is organized.

What about this one?

How is Alice in Wonderland organized?  Alice meets one interesting and strange character.  Alice meets another curious character.  And so on... until she gets home.  Just like Dorothy.  This is the way these stories are organized.

And finally, what about this one?

How is Nightmare on Elm Street organized?  The same way that every scary movie is organized.  Bad guy kills one teenager; bad guy kills another teenager, until there's just a cute couple left to escape together and live happily ever after.  Also, with this trailer there are some interesting aesthetic choices to help give the story some continuity.  The girls singing.  The continued shot back to Freddy Kruger walking down that yellowish hallway dragging his claws across those pipes.  Good times.  Hope you're not scared.  Sorry if you are.

So, how can you organize your papers?

Chronological, Logical, Scatalogical (not really...).  Good to bad?  Best argument last?


Make sure the organs of your papers are in the right place.  This is organization, after all.


Grammar Review:

Parallelism:

When you make a list, that list should make logical sense.  Speaking of organization, when you list things, they should correspond grammatically, as well as logically.

So, when I write:

I want to give you a pickle, a flounder, and to smile at you.


Well... it's just not parallel.

The first two things in my list are nouns, and the last one is a verb.  This is a problem.  They all need to be the same.

So, we can fix it by writing:

I want to give you a pickle, a flounder, and a smile.

See?  Parallel as a pie.  Careful of this; it's a silly, but easy, mistake to make as your jamming along in your  writing mode.

Your Daily Assignment:


Find some form of organization (in any medium!) and report back on how it's organized.  Big to small?  High to low?  Linear?  Symmetrical?  Cause to effect?  What?  Share an image or video or link on your blog too.