Ever read a good instructional manual?

Have you ever read a book to learn about something complicated?

Did it help?

If so, mentally thank the author again, if you would, please. I'm learning just how hard that is.

I was laid off a few weeks back, and that's got me trying to blog about SQL Server. I would have sworn that explaining how database engines use transaction log files, and how that ties in to backup and restore and recovery models would be an afternoon's work. It's been two weeks and counting!
(updated: and about 6200 words - to be honest, that's *not* bad output. I feel a bit better now.)

I'm also working in a way that seems to work for me... but it's not what I expected.

Here's what I hoped I would do:

1) think about the topic I need to write about.
2) make a *very* rough outline. Something like this:

Simple - no tlog, full diff only
Full - tlog, lots of goodies, tail of the log
Bulk-Logged - tlog, "full, BUT!!!!"
Changing between them - NOTE THAT SIMPLE TO FULL IS REALLY FUNKY!

And then, I figured, I'd fill in the outline. I thought of this as kind of like "engineering" the writing... putting up a rough structure, then doing the rest of the "building".

And so far, I haven't done that. Ever. I've been doing what I think of as "beginners writing" - sitting down, starting to write on a topic, and then finishing. And then maybe deciding I have to split it in two, and doing that, and so forth.

I'm curious: do any of my friends out there write the first way (putting together a kind of outline, and then filling it in - even if the outline is purely in your head)?

Did you do that from the beginning? Or did you kind of need to learn how you wrote first, so you started to realize what kind of outline you'd follow?

Or do you do like I do (or "know some fine writers who...") and just get an idea, and start writing, figuring you can re-do later?