Summary

Outlining is presented as a transformative technique for improving writing efficiency, clarity, and content generation.

Abstract

The article emphasizes the significant benefits of outlining before writing. It suggests that even a basic outline can streamline the writing process, enhance focus, and facilitate content repurposing for other platforms like Twitter. The author shares personal experience on how outlining has improved their writing speed, direction, and idea generation, while also making articles more reader-friendly. Two types of outlines are discussed: simple and detailed, with the former being the author's preference for blog posts and the latter for books. The article concludes by encouraging writers to adopt outlining to enhance their writing skills and productivity.

Opinions

The author initially resisted outlining due to its structured nature but found it beneficial after implementation.
Outlining is credited with saving time, providing direction, setting up content for other platforms, capturing more article ideas, and making articles easier to read.
The author advocates for simplicity in outlining, suggesting that it need not be overly complex to be effective.
Detailed outlines are recommended for more research-intensive writing, such as books, to keep information organized and specific.
The author believes that outlining can significantly multiply a writer's ability to produce content and improve their overall writing skills.
Readers are invited to share their own outlining methods and to explore additional resources provided by the author for headline creation and writing guidance.

Why Outlining Will Make You A Better Writer

One simple thing can take your writing to a new level

Outlining your writing can be a massive game-changer for your writing efficiency. By nature, I like to start writing with a few ideas in my head without much of an outline. Yet, when I began my basic outlining system, everything started to change.

Now, outlining might seem too structured for some. Especially when you think of it the way we learned in school: a heading, introduction, three main sections, and three points to each section wrapped up with a cute little conclusion.

Outlining doesn't have to be that complicated, though. It can be as simple as writing five things on the page and filling them in. For example, in this post, I wrote: 'introduction, benefits, examples, and final thoughts.'

So, in this post, that is exactly what I will do.

The Benefits of Outlining

When I first started considering outlining every post, I decided I should understand the benefits. Even though I didn't want to outline, I had read about how fast I would be able to write posts. This was my initial draw.

However, I have found five more benefits that I will share with you today:

Saves time. I know I touched on this already, but I want to be completely honest. Writing an outline saves time for the post. I will hammer through my first draft in less than 30 minutes, even with my simple one.
Provides direction. One of the hardest things about writing without an outline is that blog posts can lack focus. With an outline, you know where you start, where you are going, and how to get there.
Sets up other content. I can use a simpler version of my post on Twitter, thanks to my outline when I outline a post. I started doing this with all of my posts, which has helped a ton!
Helps me capture more article ideas. With my outlines, I end up finding other ideas within my articles. This leads to more and more content and saves me from running out of ideas. It's a natural content builder.
Makes your articles easier to read. When you have an outline, it can make the flow better for your readers. Sure, you can outline in great detail, but you don't have to do that all the time. Either way, it will make the reading experience far better.

How to Write a Useful Outline

Outlining can be as complicated or straightforward as you would like it in your practice. I don't think your outlines need to be overly complex, but having something before writing will help you.

Here are two examples of how you can outline and why each one might be helpful for you.

№1 — Simple Outlines

This is how I outline my posts. I take my big idea, create a few headlines, then write down the main points. It is simple, easy, and does not take time. Most of all, it allows me to adapt a little bit as I go. This is what it looks like:

Idea: Headline:

Introduction
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
Final Thoughts

That is it. I don't go into depth on each point. Now, I have written points 1, point 2, and point 3. But these are typically descriptions of each point. For this post, there were only two: benefits and examples.

№2 — Detailed Outlines

This is actually how I write my books. For the blog post example, you would write a main idea, title, introduction, points with subpoints, and conclusion. This may be helpful for you if you do more research or if you want to have more specifics for yourself. Here is what this looks like:

Idea: Headline:

Introduction
Point 1 (Subpoint 1, Subpoint 2, Subpoint 3)
Point 2 (Subpoint 1, Subpoint 2, Subpoint 3)
Point 3 (Subpoint 1, Subpoint 2, Subpoint 3)
Conclusion

Again, this is very useful too. It is too restrictive, but I know plenty of writers who keep precise outlines to help them fill in the gaps and have lots of helpful information.

It is entirely up to you.

Final Thoughts on Outlining

Photo by [ik] @invadingkingdom on Unsplash

Outlining will help you become a better writer.

With all the benefits it has to offer. There is no reason to neglect this practice anymore. I believe this one action will help multiple your ability to write articles over time which will help you become a better writer.

If you outline your stories, how do you do it? Share in the responses below!

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J.R. Heimbigner is a #1 Bestselling Author on Amazon who loves helping people grow in their faith, find productivity success, learn about investing, and help writers become authors. You can connect with him on Medium, his website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Ko-fi!

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This post was previously published on JRHEIMBIGNER.COM, 4/6/2022.