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.