Outline Your Articles To Make Writing Faster And Easier

Hi there now we all know that quality, unique content is a ‘must have’ for all your online activity, on the website, blog, in your articles even in your forum postings – but how to generate it is sometimes an altogether different matter. For my wife Sam and I it’s normally me who does most of the writing grind and Sam’s the proof reader and ‘does it make sense’ checker.

Now for me coming from a journalistic family and having spent most of my working life in advertising and marketing you’d have thought – no problem

It would be easy, but I tell you now its not, not at all. I often suffer writers block, often consider it a chore and spend some time writing only to look over the end result & think “what a load of old rubbish” & start again, so believe me I understand,so what are the solutions?

 

Is This You? (Because it’s certainly a spot -on description of me)

Do you remember writing papers in high school or college?  No matter how many pages you wrote, it never seemed to get any easier.  When you were writing course work or papers meant late nights in front of the computer screen with red burning eyes wishing you could go to bed.  Unfortunately, for many of us when we have our  content writer hat on it feels like this, just like being back at school or college,  when we have to write our own web content.

While some people certainly enjoy the challenge of writing, others liken it to being the worst thing ever to have to do.  Some people would rather do anything at all than crank out web content, are you one of them?  The difference between people who love to write and those who loathe can be many things but ultimately it comes down to being prepared, having a plan and ensuring that you devote quality time to it when your mindset is in the right place.  A good writer sets it all out beforehand so that the actual process of writing is far less demanding and onerous.

 Create An Outline

One way to do this is to create an effective outline before you start writing.  This lays out all of the information that you’re going to cover in the article so that you just move from one point to the next.  Start with the end goal in mind, and outline the steps you’ll take to get there.  This keeps you from having that “what do I write next” feeling.

The outline is the blueprint for the text you’re going to write.  It guides you along from the introduction through the body to the conclusion.  While outlining, you should brainstorm ideas and also phrases you want to use.  Doing this gives the article focus, and this allows it to be more creative and interesting, which means more effective.

Making a good outline also keeps you from getting stuck in the middle of the article and not knowing where to go next.  It works out the kinks and hassles before they can occur.  It speeds up the writing process and makes it feel like just a matter of talking while you type.  Here are some tips on how to make outlines that are effective.

Brainstorming Is Key

First of all, brainstorm.  Write down ideas as they come to you.  Imagine that you are your reader.  What is going to attract you to this article?  Set aside some time for doing no writing at all but just brainstorming ideas.  You should already have your research and information ready.  Look over your notes so that you know the information more or less by heart.  This will also aid the writing process.

So watch out for tomorrow’s post with the final 3 steps in my 5 step plan  to make your content and article writing a smoother and a more professional process – don’t sweat this, once you have the 5 Step Plan under your belt you’ll be flying, until then

Tony Phelps

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