Davis proposes that Smith developed story outlines over several years and expanded them into sustained narratives during dictation, drawing on contemporary techniques of semi-extemporaneous preaching. His account combines preparation and improvisation without requiring Smith to read a manuscript during dictation, and considers how Smith could seek spiritual confirmation of the narratives he composed.
- William L. Davis, Visions in a Seer Stone: Joseph Smith and the Making of the Book of Mormon (University of North Carolina Press, 2020).
Smith reviewed each of the story outlines prior to dictation, and then dictated the stories without the use of notes or manuscripts.