This drove me nuts when I was writing my master thesis. Professor handling it insisted on writing the outline first and then, in order (!), each of the chapters

This drove me nuts when I was writing my master thesis. Professor handling it insisted on writing the outline first and then, in order (!), each of the chapters. I found that approach problematic, at least for me. How was I supposed to know from the get-go what problems I'll stumble upon, what the conclusions will be, what pivots I'll make. So I just ignored that and started out in the middle, wrote what I knew when I knew it, and then progressed outward to more general, summary chapters. Turned out ok and I think with a lot less rewriting had I listened to her advice. "From the middle out" ;)