When you begin to write, how often do you outline? If you’re a freelance writer, it’s imperative that you begin with this step because you’ll waste countless hours retracing and rewriting information.
Outlining causes you to think through the entire body of the work before you begin to write. It’s also a way to avoid writer’s block, since you’ll already have a map of where you need to go with your research or character development.
Steps for Outlining:
- Brainstorm
- Search engine
- Organize
- Elaborate
Whether you’re writing a novel, an academic essay, or a search engine optimization article, you need to outline. Begin by writing down your thoughts about the topic; don’t focus on order or clarity yet. Now, do a search on the topic to see what subsets of information you may have overlooked in your brainstorming.
Now, you can organize your list. I typically suggest to my students that the order depends upon your objective, but typically, list your strongest or most relevant points first. You may realize here that some of your points need not be included.
You’re ready to write, but don’t start at the top. The best way to write is to elaborate on each point, skipping around so that you can best connect your paragraphs. Elaborating will also help you write better topic sentences and better transitional sentences.
If you get stuck, put the writing aside while you work on another project, but don’t just sit there and stare! Now, go write.
