Outlining helps structure your ideas, so you can write faster and more clearly.
This article discusses:
Why outline?
What is an outline?
An outline example
How to create an outline
Do you always need to outline?
How to outline a blog post
Harry is scratching his head.He stares at his draft text, while sipping his coffee.
Why does his writing feel like a mess? What is he actually trying to communicate?
Somehow his message has gotten lost in his writing frenzy, and now he wonders how he can turn this rough draft into a decent blog post. Revising feels like a big task.
Sound familiar?
Structuring a blog post becomes easier when you first outline your thoughts. An outline not only helps you communicate your ideas more clearly, it also helps write faster and with more ease.
Shall I explain?
Why outline?
Imagine cooking a celebratory feast …
You have a delicious starter to prepare. Perhaps an amuse bouche, too. You have several main dishes that all need to get on the table at once. And then there’s dessert. Plus coffee, cognac, and chocolates.
Would you start cooking without a plan?
That would be disastrous, wouldn’t it?
You know you need to plan in advance, so your perfectly char-grilled steak doesn’t go cold while you’re steaming asparagus and preparing pepper sauce.
When you cook a festive meal, you avoid experimentation, and implement a carefully thought-out plan.
So, what do you do when you write?
Writing is, of course, not the same as cooking. But just like with cooking, you can create a plan of what to write. That plan is an outline.
What is an outline?
An outline summarizes the content of a blog post. It helps structure your blog post so you can communicate your message more clearly and so you can create a blog post faster.
An outline explains briefly:
- The key message: Which problem does the blog post help solve or which aim does it help achieve?
- The essential tips: Which steps or tips should people follow to solve that problem or achieve that aim?
- The questions a blog post will answer: Not every blog post comprises a series of tips; listing the questions a post will answer is a useful alternative.
Additionally, an outline can include:
- Who the blog post is written for
- Any essential context that helps readers follow the tips or steps
- Any objections that need to be taken away so readers are more inclined to follow the tips
An outline can simply be a series of bullet points. Each bullet point summarizes the essence each section of your blog post.
An example of an outline
The outline for the blog post you’re currently reading is:
- Opening paragraph: Empathize with readers’ feeling that structuring a blog post can feel cumbersome and promise that outlining will help create better blog posts faster.
- Essential context: Explain the benefit of outlining by comparing it to cooking a dinner party.
- What is an outline?
- Example of an outline (that’s what you’re reading right now)
- How to create (and use) an outline
- An alternative to outlining: freewriting
- Closing paragraph: Take away the objection that an outline stifles creativity and encourage readers to try using an outline to clarify their thoughts, simplify their message, and write faster.
If you skim this blog post, you can see there are 7 different subheads—that’s one for each section as outlined above.
You may also have noticed that the content overview at the top of this page (here) provides a slightly shortened version of the outline—it excludes the opening and closing paragraphs.
How to create an outline
Outlining is the second or third step in the writing process.
The first two steps are research and generating ideas. If you write about something you know, you can skip the research phase.
The best blog posts ideas are on the sweet spot of what helps your readers and what you feel eager to share:
- Think about your reader: How will your post help them? Which aim do you help them achieve? Or which problem will you help solve?
- Consider your own interests: What do you feel excited to write about?
Once you’ve selected, vetted, and researched an idea, you can create an outline for it. Think about the steps a reader must take to achieve an aim or solve a problem, or consider the questions your reader might ask about your idea.
When I wrote this blog post, I imagined you asking: What is an outline? Can you give an example of an outline? How do you know your outline is good? How do you actually create an outline? Do you always need to create an outline? As you can see, these questions formed the basis of the outline for this blog post, and I’m answering them one by one.
It can help to let your idea simmer for a day or two. I often pick an idea I want to write about, mull it over in my mind during a walk or when I wake up the next day. I write the outline the day after I pick the idea.
How do you know whether an outline is good?
As a rough guide, an outline for an average blog post (900 – 1,200 words) will include 3 to 5 tips or sections plus an opening and final paragraph. If your outline includes many more sections, then you can either write a longer post or spread your idea over series of blog posts.
Do you always need to outline?
Sometimes, I have an inkling of an idea but don’t really know the essence of my message. This is often the case when I write a more personal post, for instance, about the biggest lessons I’ve learned in a year.
When I need to figure out my message, I often freewrite a blog post. Freewriting means that you start writing without an outline. You use the writing process to discover what the essence of your message is. This is also called pre-writing, and what you’re creating is a zero draft or discovery draft.
When freewriting, you may need to do more revision than when you’re writing a first draft based on an outline.
A discovery draft can still be a bit messy—the ideas in the draft may be unorganized and the key message is buried. To structure and revise a discovery draft, a reverse outline can help. A reverse outline is an outline created after you’ve written a draft post.
To create a reverse outline, list the key thought for each section. Next, determine the right flow: Do the key thoughts follow each other logically or do you need to move sections around? Have you included any stray thoughts that can be removed? Are any key thoughts missing?
Freewriting can help you get unstuck and discover what you want to say. It can also help tap into your creativity and create more ideas. But the downside of freewriting can be that you may need to do more revision and the writing process may take longer.
If you freewrite your posts but find the process cumbersome, try to outline first.
An outline isn’t a straitjacket
It’s simply a tool to help structure your writing.
Sometimes, your first draft may show the gaps in your outline. Perhaps, you missed out a key point or a section turned out too long. In such a case, simply adjust your outline and restructure your post.
Writing is often an iterative process of thinking, structuring, writing, and then rethinking, restructuring, and rewriting until your message becomes clear. Outlining and reverse-outlining facilitates this iterative process.
An outline helps you decide what is relevant and what isn’t. It helps create focus, so you can communicate your message more strongly.
Each idea will shine more brightly when you create a logical flow and cut away irrelevant paragraphs and sections.
And readers will be smoothly glide to your text, captivated from your first to your last word.
Happy writing!
PS This blog post was originally written on 29 April 2014. An expanded and revised version was published on 8 November 2021.
Recommended reading on the blog writing process:
The 8-step writing process
The magic of shitty first drafts
The 5-step revision process for editing rough drafts
Henneke,
Thank you for this enlightening post. I enjoy freewriting but it often comes out messy and unfocused. Your explanation about creating a reverse outline was spot on for me!
I’m glad that was helpful. Happy writing, Seth, and thank you for stopping by!
I love this post. I was feeling bad for not writing outlines. I love free writing.
But I’ve been told that my writing still has a very logical flow, so perhaps it’s okay.
I love your idea of a reverse outline, though, and think I might use that.
Yep, I think it’s personal preference. A lot of writing coaches will insist on outlining, but I’d say freewriting also works for relatively short content such as blog posts. For books or courses, however, outlining is a must.
Happy writing, Brandon!
I am sitting down to write my weekly blog and I like to read over your blog posts to help me to begin the creative process. You are very good about giving a step by step process to something that is really about being creative. I love being creative but I really love having some kind of method to my madness. Thank you for another great blog post.
Thank you, Sheri. I’m glad it’s helpful. Having some structure only helps us to be more creative! 🙂
I think every writer has a different way of working, but the end result needs to be that the post flows. It’s rare in blogging advice for that to be acknowledged, so it’s fantastic that you do. Great analogy of cooking a meal. Thanks so much for an excellent post:-)
Yes, that’s true, and every writer has to find the way that works best for him or her.
Good to see you again!
Hi Henneke
I discovered you through Kissmetrics and I gotta admit, I am totally hooked. Love the illustrations, your brand voice, everything. Each and every post offers valuable, actionable advice. I cant even begin to express how much I hate woo woo, think-and-you-shall-achieve type of business advice.
You are amazing!
Thank you, Bushra. Yep, I hate the type of “advice” where people don’t really tell you anything, too. Thank you for stopping by!
Nice post. My #1 goal is always just to get people to keep reading. Nothing else matters if you cant do that, right?
P.S. love the “enchanting” comments 🙂
ttyl,
Rob
Yep, agreed. Get people to start reading and then keep them reading. 🙂
Thank you for stopping by!
I wouldn’t miss a week – but sometimes I am overwhelmed by.. er.. work 😉
Good subject.
For short posts I never use an outline.
For long posts: hardly ever 😉
For a book: yes. Always an outline.
For a long post, the outline can sometimes consist of the subheaders.
Yes, for me an outline for a long-ish post often consists a list of subheads. Just gives enough sense of direction.
Thank you for stopping by, Kitty! 🙂
Hi Henneke, Great post and really relevant as I absolutely work to a template. I’ve just created a template adding to this including:
Images
Infographics
Video
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the posts promotion, eg newsletter (how I got it) Facebook (would you pay to get it to more of your likers) Pinterest (if you included an info graphic)
Also love to hear if you research the keywords first before coming up with the title or if the title should be just the best title regardless of how it could rank later on Google…
Nick
My main post promotion tool is my email list. But I’ll also share my post on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Pinterest (if I remember). On Twitter I share a post three times over a 24-hour period. I don’t have a Facebook account, and if I had one, I wouldn’t consider paying for likes.
I try to understand what readers are struggling with and how I can help. This usually generates specific topics that I can write about. I sometimes do keyword research to contribute to this process, but it’s not a key tool for generating blog post ideas – perhaps more for refining.
My post titles are primarily written to grab attention and arouse curiosity to read the post. If it contains a specific keyphrase, then I might change the order of the words to ensure the key phrase appears in the first 55 characters.
Glad you like the post, Nick 🙂
I’ve got personal journals dating back to my first decade of life. No surprise I fall into Camp B. Writing surprises me by showing me how much I know and what I really believe. When I’m done, I get to edit a full page of ideas rather than stare down a blank one. Quite often as many words litter the cutting-room floor as make it into the final post. That may not look like an efficient way to go about things, but I find it is. The leftovers don’t get the dustbin, but are added to my midden pile for future use. I have whole chunks at the ready when I need to pull out something…anything with a quick turn around date.
Have you ever tried outlining first? I find it can be helpful.
I grew up in a high school English classroom. Before I was out of grade school, I was enlisted to help grade papers. Everyone of her classes had an essay due each week on Friday with an outline submitted the previous Wednesday. Of course, it was the old school hamburger-style essay. When I got to college and realized there was a greater freedom in written expression, my outlining consisted of writing a working headline and subheads…which morphed in the various edits. That is still pretty much my process.
Sounds like you’ve had more than your fair share of outlining!
Thanks for the great advice once again Henneke. Thanks for breaking down the why – how – what to do now. I knew something was missing. It’s my call to action.
I use mind maps to get me started. Working with an outline to begin the process quiets my creativity. When writing a manuscript I use a mind map and then an outline.
Again, I appreciate your sage advice. When I received your email update today, I forbade myself from reading it as an incentive to get my other pressing work finished first.
Do you use pen and paper for your mind maps, too?
I hope you got your other work finished before stopping by! 😉
Yes – I love to use lots of colors as well. I have gone from an OMG I have nothing to write blank slate to overflowing with words to write using my colorful mind maps. Yes in fact, I got my 1st newsletter out the door today before coming to see what you were up to.
Congrats on publishing your first newsletter!
I like the idea of using colors in mind mapping. I’ll have to try that. 🙂
Hi, Hennecke!
We often have to drive long trips, and I often spend the time outlining. As I work in the car, I think, “This article will be so-o-o-o long!”
But guess what! The outline helps me “write tight” as the say, and always makes a packed but short post that always gets a decent turnover.
You are absolutely right!
Being on the move can help us be creative! I like brainstorming on the train or on my bike. When on my bike, however, I can’t write anything down.
Ha! Nor I, if husband asks me to drive! I think there is something about the rhythm of the movement, the bumps in the seams of the road, or something, that causes my mind to work in a structured way.
Also the regularity of a schedule helps, of knowing every time we make this trip, I’ll have an hour to think. I’ve learned to relax and do so.
Hi Henneke,
This should be really helpful for many bloggers. Understanding what not to write is the most valuable tip. Those ideas can be saved for later, but an outline helps me make sure I’m delivering well on one single idea. I’m probably a hybrid kind of outliner.
Cheers,
Chris
Yep, blog posts often meander into too many directions, so cutting irrelevant sections is the first painful job of editing.
When I wrote my books, I used a “parking lot” – parts I had to cut were parked here, and some of these sections I could re-use later on in other parts of the book.
Good to see you again, Chris!
I have found that a super loose outline works for me. It’s maybe 5-7 lines long and it is just something for me to refer to when I am writing so I don’t forget the main points that I wanted to talk about.
Yep, that sounds like a good way of working!
I am an outline Nazi. I. Love. Outlines.
In addition to being a freelance copywriter, I’m also a full-time communications and philosophy instructor at the local college. I don’t think there’s one, full-on speaking or writing assignment in all the courses I teach that I don’t require a complete outline prior to the final speech being delivered or the final essay being submitted.
Most student start out hating it… and end up just as much in love with the clarity and persuasive power of a well-built outline as I am.
I use the same, traditional, three-part structure in EVERYTHING:
I. Introduction – Tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em (and hook ’em first).
II. Body – Tell ’em.
III. Conclusion (or CTA) – Tell ’em what you told ’em (and tell ’em exactly what to do with it).
And I totally agree with the other comments. I don’t stick to my outlines religiously… but I do force myself to update my outline before I update my posts. Disciplining myself to go back to the outline cuts down considerably on “fluff” and “rabbit trails.” Nothing helps me stick to the POINT more than an outline: before and during the writing process.
Thanks for the outline love!
Yes, outlining definitely cuts down on fluff and rabbit trails, but I know good bloggers and writers who never outline. This may also depend on the experience of the writers.
Ben Bova said about writing short stories:
“for the short story, outlines can sometimes be a hindrance. (…) [m]ore often than not, a detailed outline of the plot stultifies the story.”
like the idea of writing the outline afterwards – excellent way to see if what you’re writing makes sense and what you can take out (that doesn’t make sense).
I’ve also used this technique to study other posts to see how they’re structured. It’s a good way to learn 🙂
Good to see you again, Daphne!
I tend to start with a rough outline on paper. A lot of times that outline will change a little as the article forms but I find it to be helpful to have an idea of how I view the structure of the final article before starting.
Yes, I agree – it’s a good idea to keep an open mind and not stick to an outline religiously.
Thank you for stopping by, Marc 🙂
Great post as always Henneke…thank you for sharing. My website is nearly there. Should launch, fingers crossed around mid May and thank you for asking. Until next time…
Jeannette
That’s great news. Good luck with the launch!
I am definitely a free flow writer and love it.
Deleting, rearranging and editing happen after I write.
From June I will be doing idea mapping as I have decided to knowledge curate on topics and write longer posts with a vid, mp3 and an activity sheet so there’s more involved.
It’s so interesting how everyone has their own preference.
I freewrite when I’m stuck or when I’m excited to get something down on paper. I sometimes have an outline, and then abandon it when I start writing. And at other times I religiously stick to my outline.
Thank you for stopping by, Liz
I always use outlines – they give me a path to follow. Not to mention, the assurance that I won’t reach the end of the post only to realize it’s too unfocused to publish.
Love the “Why -> How -> What to do now” break up of your posts Henneke. I know exactly what I’ll get every time I read one of your posts 🙂
I sometimes wonder whether the “why -> how -> what to do now” becomes too predictable, but every time I try to venture from this path, I feel something is missing. So I each time go back to my formula – even when I freewrite 🙂
Enjoying what we do is the most important thing. If something becomes like a chore, then we need to re-evaluate what we do, why we are doing it in the first place, and etc. Having a basic outline or template does help, so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time (so to speak).
I hope everything is going well with your projects, Henneke.
Yes, I agree. Especially creative endeavors like writing or painting should be mostly fun (even though at times they may feel hard).
Thank you for stopping by again, Lucy. Always good to see you. I hope everything is well with you, too.