What is Writing?
I think this may be a silly question, but it’s important to ask ourselves what we are doing when we write. It is one thing to know what you want to say, but how do you get there? How do you organize your thoughts in a coherent and easy-to-follow manner? I’m going to outline some of my favorite tools for writing: outlining, mind mapping, and brainstorming. These three things are the foundation of good writing. If you can’t figure out where your story is going or if the plot doesn’t make sense it’s probably because these three things aren’t working for you. Let me try and explain them as best as I can!
Outlining: An Outline Is Essential For Planning Your Story/Essay/Poem/Whatever You’re Writing! (Or Not)
The most common way that people organize their ideas is through an outline (or some kind of list). There are many ways that one might outline their work such as bullet points or numbered sentences but either way the key point here is organization. When planning out your piece make sure that each section has its own paragraph(s) so that readers can get a clear picture of everything happening in your story without having to read every single sentence over again just because they missed something on the first pass through due to poor organization skills on your part. The content companies that hire you to write their content understand that you will have a plan worked out before you write anything and therefore are perfectly fine with you not outlining your work. They expect that the outline is already worked out in your head but they want to verify that it is there by asking for an outline either way. This brings me to my next point: Outlines aren’t always as necessary as people make them seem. If I’m writing about something that I feel very strongly about, then I might just start writing and finish whenever it feels natural to do so.. However, if the subject isn’t important or if I’m not familiar with what I am talking about (for example the recent blog post on how to become more confident) then an outline really helps me get my ideas organized before starting anything else!
Mind Mapping: Get The Ideas Out Of Your Head And Into A Picture
This may be a little different than what many of us are used too when we think of mind maps but this technique is great for when we want to get our ideas out into the open so that they can be seen all at once instead of one at a time through bullet points or numbered sentences. Mind mapping is done by drawing a circle in the middle of your paper and labeling it “topic”. From here branches (or lines) should be drawn out from this circle until there are things like events or characters coming off of these branches. This is a great way to get all of your ideas out into the open but it can be very overwhelming if you try and draw a mind map with too many branches coming out of the main circle. A good rule of thumb is that each branch represents an idea so that you don’t end up having so many things going on in your mind map that it becomes difficult to read or understand.
Brainstorming: Getting The Ideas Out Of Your Head And Into Something That You Can Actually Use
This step comes after outlining (or before, depending on how well you can plan things) where I do my brainstorming and organizing. I have found this to be very helpful when it comes to getting all of my ideas down onto paper because I tend not to think about everything at once but rather one thing at a time, therefore if I try and write everything at once without any kind of organization then what ends up happening is that one sentence will start off fine but then go off on some tangent and suddenly there are two sentences instead of one! It gets quite confusing for me! Brainstorming allows me to organize my thoughts in such a way that they flow together better than they did before when they were all just floating around in my head waiting for me to find them.
The Writer’s Guide to Writing: Writing Is The Final Step!
I’ve covered the basics of writing and now I’m going to do a quick review in case you have forgotten anything that I have already stated. Outlining is essential for planning your story, mind mapping will help get all of your ideas out into the open, and brainstorming will help organize those ideas so that they flow together. Now isn’t this a lot more manageable than just trying to write everything as is? Most of us are so used to writing one sentence after another that we forget to think about what we are actually writing or how it should be organized. You can still write things without outlining, mind mapping, or brainstorming but trust me when I say that it won’t end up being nearly as good (or even look good) if you don’t do any kind of organization before hand. If this is something you struggle with then take some time out today and plan things out! It really does make a difference! And if one technique doesn’t work for you try using another one next time. You’ll find what works best for you soon enough 🙂