Writing Tips: Create an Outline

Writing Tips: Create an Outline

Can you imagine a house being created without a blueprint? The final product would be a sight to behold. The walls probably would be mismatched, the rooms would be randomly placed, and the final outcome would be a hodgepodge. Any project, whether it is a building, a work of art, or a writing project, needs to have a basic plan. A sort of skeleton onto which the flesh of the project will be placed.

That’s what your outline is for your writing project. When you have a good outline, you have a plan which will go a long way toward guaranteeing your successful outcome. In fact that is one of the keys to creating a great piece of writing. And yet many writers completely overlook this step, particularly when they’re writing short pieces like articles and reports. So where do you start?

Step #1: Pick Your Topic

Spend some time thinking about what you want to say. What is the main point you want to get across? As you do this exercise, remember that you need to focus on your audience you are reaching. You’re already working in a specific niche, so now you just need to pick a topic for your article, report, e-book or other content piece. Obviously, you want to choose a popular topic.

You can do this by:

  • Looking at paid products (on sites like Clickbank.com and Amazon.com) to see which topics are being sought by people. When you see a lot of interest in a certain area, you know that people are seeking answers in that area, and you know that you can help them.
  • Checking out niche forums and blogs to see which topics generate a lot of interest and discussion. (A concentrated Google search will locate some of these tools).

Step #2: Choose Your Primary Goal for This Piece

Once you’ve picked your topic, then you need to decide what your goal is for this piece. You can also decide the approximate length.

Examples:

  • Is it an article for your blog? If so, what is the goal of this article? For example,  is it to provide spiritual answers for your audience? Is it to encourage your following to pray for revival? Or is it to get people to join your email list?
  • Is it a free report, introducing yourself? If so, then the goal is to “warm up” prospects and get them to click your links. You want to show people who you are, and how you can help them.
  • Is it a paid e-book? If so, then the goal is to give your readers in-depth instructions and encourage them to take action.

Knowing your primary goal will help you keep your writing focused on the goal.

Step #3: Do Your Preliminary Research

If you’re not an expert in the niche, then you’ll need to do some initial research in order to determine what steps, tips, or topics you need to cover in your piece. (More about this Here).

Note: A simple keyword search (such as “how to pray successfully”) will uncover hundreds of similar content pieces, so you can look at these pieces to determine which topics you need to include in your article, report or e-book, too. Remember, don’t expect to be the only voice out there solving problems or bringing encouragement.

Tip: If you’re writing a book, go to Amazon.com and search for similar books. That’s because Amazon let’s you take a peek inside the book to see the table of contents. These tables of contents will give you plenty of ideas about what topics to include in your book.

Step #4: Create Your Outline

Once you have a good idea about what topics to include in your content piece, now it’s time to create your outline.

If you need guidance as to how to order your topics, just go back to your research to see how other popular content pieces ordered their topics. Otherwise, here are a few general guidelines:

  • Logical order. If you’re describing a step-by-step process, then obviously your outline will list the steps in order.
  • Beginner to advanced material. Self-explanatory – put the easier material at the beginning of your piece.
  • Faster results to slower results. If you’re listing different tips or strategies, you might order them from those that get quick results to those that take longer to implement.
  • Mix of tips. Here you might put one or two of your BEST tips in the beginning and then put another one or two of your best tips at the end.

Next, you should assign an approximate word count to each section, which will help you stay focused on the most important parts of your content piece.

Finally, don’t forget to look at your outline to ensure that it helps you meet the goal of your content piece (such as preselling a product or teaching your readers a process). If your outline looks good, then it’s time to start your writing!

Writing Tips: Research

Writing Tips: Research

You have these ideas circulating in your head, and you can hardly wait to start writing them down. You know your subject and you know it well. Maybe your area of expertise is Biblical understanding of marriage, or prayer, or finances, or ministry to women in crisis. If you’re already an expert in your niche, then you can probably sit down and write an article, a report,  or an e-book without having to consult any sources.

Yet if you’re like most people, then you need to do some research before you start writing.  Even if you are an expert, researching other resources can help you to expand the benefit of your writing. And if you want to end with an accurate, useful article, then you’d better be sure you do your research the right way.

So here are some tips…

Create Multiple Searches

You’ll get a wider variety of sources and information if you complete several Google searches. Let’s suppose you’re looking up information about prayer. You’d want to do several searches, such as:

  • Praying for family
  • Praying for children
  • Praying for husband or wife
  • Praying for revival
  • Biblical prayer
  • Christian prayer
  • How to pray

These are just a few ideas. You will think of your own, but you will see that as you search, you will come up with quite a few sources of information.

Use Credible Sources

Anyone can put just about anything online. And that’s why it’s so important for you to get your information from credible sources only. This includes:

  •  Well-known experts. For example, you can trust people like Cindy Jacobs, Dutch Sheets, or Germaine Copeland in the prayer niche.
  • Established authority sites. These are sites like Elijah List or John Bevere’s Messenger International.org which are known for providing high-quality information.
  • News sites. Stick to major news sites, like Charisma News or Breaking Christian News.
  • Academic and research sites. These include official university websites as well as research papers in peer-reviewed journals. Oral Roberts University or Lee University are just a couple of universities which would have valuable information.

Verify With Multiple Sources

Even if you are going through credible sources for your research, be sure to use multiple sources.

In other words, verify all facts with at least two or three credible sources. In the mouths of two or three witnesses let everything be established. (Deut. 19:15)

Make Notes

As you’re doing your research, take notes about important points. If you think of your own examples, stories or tips, write these down too.

That’s because you’re going to want to close all your sources before you start writing to avoid accidentally plagiarizing anyone else’s material. Thus you’ll refer to your notes rather than referring directly to a source.

Tip: In order to create truly original content, it’s best if you find your own fresh angle for the topic. For example, many writing books and articles refer to the importance of telling stories to illustrate your points and grab attention.

Credit Your Sources

If you’re using multiple sources to do your research on something which is written about often, like prayer, then generally you’ll find that the information is the same across these sources.

Thus you just need to write the information in your own words and add in your own unique tips, examples, and stories.

However, if you’re gathering research on something specific, and quoting someone exactly, then you need to cite your source.

In this case, you’d track down the original scholarly journal and cite this journal at the end of your article, report, or e-book.

In summary…

You need to make sure your information is accurate by researching a variety of credible sources. However, you also need to make sure that any content piece you create is completely original.

So while you can certainly use a content piece for inspiration and research, you cannot copy or merely “rewrite” other people’s work. Instead, you need to write all your content in your own words, preferably adding in your own experiences whenever possible.

The result is fresh information, drawing upon the experience of others, but filtered through your own understanding. That’s how you can inform and inspire your audience.

As you continue with your research, you will find many ideas which you might like to use in your own articles. By drawing upon the experience of others – as well as your own – you bring new inspiration to your audience.

You and your audience will be inspired as you do.