this old essay

Writers really should have a show on cable TV along the lines of "This Old House" or some sort of HGTV program. I've come to believe the three most important things a writer can know about are structure, structure, and structure.
I finally wrote my article for my day job at the magazine about second careers. I had followed a couple of pointers that Dave Fryxell makes in his books, including digesting some of the interview notes I had taken by making a "road map" of them. After studying those maps, as well as drafting a map or blueprint (ok, an outline) of the final article, I got down to writing.
I didn't get lost 2/3 of the way through, which seems to be the point at which many a writer's freshly mown meadow lane turns into a twisting trail through the haunted forest. I had to do quite a bit of revising, and rearranged several of the sections, but the final product has a better, and more obvious, shape to it than many of the how-to/service type of articles I've written.
I also did quite a bit of pre-writing work on structure for the Echo humor column I knocked out this evening. It's not perfect, this first draft--in fact, I have a rather large dilemma concerning which direction to take the end of the column--but I have a pretty good idea of the two basic choices I have. Let's hope I take the road less unraveled. Whatever I choose, pre-structuring it has made it easier to retrace my steps and get back on track already.