Actually, I know it was, since I didn’t write one. I grouped my research notes into topics and tried to organize those, instead of deciding in advance what I wanted to say in what order, then tagging the notes accordingly.
It might have worked anyway, though, if I had actually included a mini-outline or goal for each section, in addition to my research notes. What I have found is that I get to a new section and just start writing based on the notes I have pasted there, but sometimes those notes are similar (or identical) to notes in other places – such as when there is some overlap – and I can’t recall which part I had meant to focus on in that stage.
I’ve also lost sight from time to time about what I want the reader to come away with from each section, and that’s a huge mistake. In non-fiction, even in the first draft, everything should be about the reader experience. In fiction, it’s OK to use the first draft to get the story out, then go back to the reader experience in revision, but that’s not an efficient way to approach non-fiction.
I think I need to go back now and re-outline this thing and reorganize my early sections. It’s a pain some 10k words in, but it’s better than getting 50k words in and having to do the same thing.
Fun fun fun. More reason to wish I was writing fiction every day – and that’s a good thing!