[Vimoutliner] I'm writing a book in VimOutliner

[Steve Litt]

Hi all,

For the first time I've gone beyond book outlining in VO (VimOutliner) and am 
actually writing the book (via body text) in VO. What this does is eliminate 
the artificial demarkation between outlining and writing. 

It's very possible, and in fact quite likely, that some chapters will be ready 
for writing long before others are fully outlined. In the past this led me to 
either retard writing certain chapters, or prematurely convert to LyX.

Now, to an extent, I can write one chapter while outlining another, and have 
everything come out well in the end.

This is not a rigorous process. The VO writing will be only a very rough 
draft. It can't include things like Tips, Notes, character styles etc. Well, 
it could, but not without time consuming difficulty. Instead, this is an 
informal extension of traditional outlining. The goal is still to have the 
book really take shape in LyX.

Fortunately, recent versions of LyX include an outline mode similar to what MS 
Word has had forever. This means that in all stages of development, outlining 
methods can be used. Early, when outlining speed is paramount, VO is used for 
speed, but some writing and formatting capabilities are available.. Later, 
when writing and formatting capabilities are most important, LyX is used, 
with the advantage that some outlining capabilities are still retained.

Stay tuned...

SteveT

Steve Litt
Author: Universal Troubleshooting Process books and courseware
http://www.troubleshooters.com/