Planning For Writers
As a freelance writer, you can make your life a bit easier by planning the content that you write. It may seem easier to do a brain dump and write whatever comes to mind on a given subject, but that won’t help you to organize it in a way that makes sense.
Planning does not have to be elaborate, but for me it’s a necessary part of the writing process. If you’ve ever taken a novel writing or creative writing course, then you’ll know that they teach you how to create an outline that makes the final writing process almost intuitive. This discipline works well for non fiction writing as well.
Starting To Plan
I often begin the planning process by writing down what I know about the topic. Rather than a brain dump, a mind mapping approach works well, so that you link up related concepts as soon as you think of them. That also helps you to identify what might be missing.
Where Are You Going?
When planning, think about the end point. You will take your reader on a journey, and just like a real life journey, you should have some idea of your destination when you begin. I decide what my main point is, based on what I already know, or what I think I ought to include. Then it’s time to consider how to get there.
What’s Missing?
At this stage, I make a list. The early part of the planning process has given me a number of points to cover. I try to arrange these in logical order and to group related points. When I have my initial outline, I think about what my readers might want to know. It’s essential to put yourself in their place – or in the place of someone who has no idea what you’re talking about.
Where Should You Put It?
Once you’ve thought about the gaps, identify where that information will fit into your plan. By now, you should have an outline that you’ll be able to work to. That’s only the first part of the process, though, because this is the plan you make before you complete your research. Once you have researched the topic, you will need to revise the plan to take account of any new information.
Starting To Write
Then it’s time to start writing. I find that the plan is a good guide to how to write the body and the conclusion of a piece. However, it’s up to me to craft the lead in a way that will draw readers in. If I know where I’m headed, that’s quite easy.
That planning process works well for most types of writing. If you write a lot, you can also create a template based on a structure that works well. Article templates are great for writing dozens of articles on the same topic. How to make them different? Well, that will be the subject of another post.
Technorati Tags: freelance writing,writing career,writing business,get paid to write
You might also enjoy:
Share this on: Facebook / StumbleUpon / Delicious / Twitter
Or get updates via our RSS, EMAIL or Podcast feed. There's also a Kindle edition
Copyright Info
Get Paid To Write Online by Sharon Hurley Hall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Copyright for posts written by guest authors remains with them.Useful info
Connect with me
Yup, sounds like a plan. Essentially, you want to create a roadmap for people. The reader is at point A, your title, and you want to get him to point B, the logical route from title to end – and hopefully onwards to action, increased knowledge, etc.)
Another way that is very effective is headers to help plot your route. Using headers also breaks down your task into small, manageable chunks. You’ll write a lot faster and far more effectively.
Great post, Sharon. I love all these tips…and use pre-planning before writing. It’s a great way to work out a lot of the “bugs” before your first draft.
That’s a great tip, James and one which I also use, so thanks for including that link.
Yes it is, Hope. Of course there are also the times when you have to write in a frenzy, but having a plan always helps – and if you can remember plans you’ve used for similar articles, it can provide a good head start.