The value of surprise

Good business writing is planned writing
In fiction, there’s the distinction between planning a story and discovering a story.

If you plan a story, you know the characters, you build an outline, you know your ending. And then you start writing, filling in the gaps.

If you discover the story, you start with an idea or two. Maybe you have this cool alien planet and the girl who grew up there. And when you write about it, things start to happen. And the next thing follows from there and you write that down.

Most good business writing is planned writing. It has a clear structure and it’s written with the main point in mind. Which is good, if you know what you want to say. And you want others to understand what you’re saying, too.

But what if you don’t know what you want to say?
Then discovery writing is a brilliant way to come up with new ideas or to flesh out existing ones.

Just pick a question that’s important to your business or an idea you want to present, and start writing. Let your mind wander and write down what you discover along the way. You may be surprised by all the shiny things you’ll find.