The Writing Process

I thought I would pause here and share some thought on the writing process with my students.

Recall, in the beginning of this, I first looked about to see if indeed there was enough information available to make an interesting topic; there was. Then I developed a list of questions based on what I THOUGHT I was going to examine; as you all know the project evolved into a study of just Robinett.

Research completed I am not ready to begin writing. But where do I start? Thinking, that is where. For the last month I have been thinking about how to approach the organization of this and what themes to use. Last week I jotted down some ideas, nothing formal to see where I was with both.

Then I placed my ideas in an general outline:
I. Introduction
II. Delaware Military Academy
III. Early Military Career
IV. Corinth
V. Home
VI. Vicksburg
VII. 1st USI
VIII. Home
IX. Grant’s Staff
X. New Orleans
XI. Court Martial 1 & 2
XII. Court Martial 3
XIII. Disability Pension & Orders
XIV. Suicide
XV. Conclusion

After talking to a few friends and over the past few days I have developed a list of themes that I will weave into these sections:

Honor - Military Academy DMA - Military - Society? - Artillery-lack respect? - Family-Rev. War ancestors
Narcissism -Rage
Connections - Grant’s Staff - Freemason - Patrons?
Psychic/physical trauma?

I will think on these a bit more and then flesh out the outline, most likely this weekend. I find it hard to write well during the week; too many distractions with work and all. Once I have a completed outline I will begin writing the sections. Note I did not say chapters. This is will initially be an article for publication, later, who knows? I have enough to write a good article right now or a poor book; I’ll write the article, see how it is received, and see if I can get additional grants for the coming years to support anything further.

Keep History Alive
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