And finally I was ready to write . . . 

 
I developed my argument through a process of outlining, starting to write, revising the outline, and rewriting.  Here's a section from my project journal, showing how I began to develop my outline:

After struggling to fit everything together, I decided to focus more narrowly. I set aside the question I began with, about Lind's role as a public woman, and turned my attention to the popular texts and how they worked.

In part, that happened because I wanted to write a paper for a conference on "authorship, reading, and publishing," so I needed to focus on the print materials. But this also made it possible for me to tighten my work significantly, looking closely at just one aspect of Lind's tour.