To write non-fiction, draw the trunk, then the rest of the tree

– an owl mid flight I saw last summer. try drawing it.“You should have failed this class. I’m going to make accommodations so that no student can pass next semester the same way you did.”This is what my Ancient History II professor told me when my group and I got our final group project essay handed out. Every group would have an interview with her to get feedback on the essays and ideally congratulate students. We did get really good feedback on the essay.She loved the essay, but while giving that feedback she almost was exclusively looking at my friend sitting on my left. Then she looked at me, and told me to thank my friend because he obviously carried me through the essay and that I should’ve failed her class so next semester the final essay would be individual.She was kind of rightAlthough it was an embarrassing moment for me, I don’t blame her. What she saw was me arriving late or even sleeping through class. I’ve always had trouble staying awake when sitting in lectures ever since kindergarten. I’ve been kicked out of classes for sleeping more times than I can count. And my friend was the complete opposite: he was active in class and had no issues with arriving in time since he lived right next to the campus.But my writing carried me anywaysOn the other hand, she was oblivious to the fact that I had written that essay almost entirely by myself while my friend was copiloting a bit on the side or sleeping while I kept writing until 6am. I was the one that read and re-read the full bibliography we used for the essay. I was the one that proposed the thesis and the main ideas. I was the one that structured the essay. What she praised was my writing.The single most important thingIn Spanish we have a saying: “Irse por las ramas” (to go/leave through the branches). It describes when people deviate from the topic and discuss irrelevant stuff. It has this implicit analogy that there’s a central trunk, with branches you traverse through, but that you should always be coming back to the central trunk. For every successful essay I wrote, I identified the central trunk first.Before writing anything you should know what you are going write about. Seems kind of obvious but the natural impulse I’ve seen is to write similar to how we speak: without further thinking ahead for more than a moment. But the cool thing about writing is that it’s not immediate, so you have all the time to think ahead. Before you even start writing you should have decided these two things:1. ThemeThe trunk is the theme you will be writing about. This helps you ground your ideas and not get lost in the weeds. Reader attention is key, and if you don’t keep it focused on the theme, readers will either get lost on what you are trying to convey or worse: get bored.Examples:a) This post’s theme is essay/non-fiction writingb) Here the theme is brainrot and vacationsc) Here the theme is how SOLID and Clean Code are presented2. Thesis (optional):The thesis is what you want to say about the topic. You will not always have one, but if you don’t have one make that a conscious decision. If there’s an opinion there always a thesis. But theses can also be implicit throughout the text.For example in my latest post there’s an implicit thesis that reading, maths, nature and socializing are a cure to brainrot. An example of a post of mine that doesn’t have a thesis is this post where I share my earliest memories that supposedly I shouldn’t be able to remember.As a rule of thumb, if what you are going to write is exclusively expository, narrative, descriptive, functional / transactional; then it’s possible that you don’t have a thesis. But even then make it a conscious decision because even the forms I described above can carry an implicit thesis.Support the most important thingNow that you have decided what you’ll be writing, make sure everything you write is in line with that. Think of it as a hierarchy where the Theme/Thesis is at the top and then you have the arguments that support your thesis.