Outlining for Content Creation or How To Stay On Topic

I have always loved telling stories, and scored great marks because I was able to draw my professors in. I always got docked for not staying on topic though. I just got inspired by tangents and left the reader asking “What was that even about?!” Obviously I was never a fan of pre-writing, mindmapping, or outlining. Often I would just turn a paper in right after I finished it. (Before MS Word, the spelling and grammar might have caused serious injury)

This morning my Mother-in-law and I were talking about her Storyteller Archetype and I shared with her the secret that helped me and my team create awesome papers through our MBA program. I even use it for emails when I have a lot to communicate or am really upset and want to prevent myself from ranting.

Create an Outline of Questions to Guide Your Writing

The big secret wasn’t the outline. Sure, it helped, but it left me staring off into space more often than not. Why go through all of that effort if at the end I still didn’t have any clue where to start?

That is when I decided to ask questions. I can answer a question! I read all the time, I’m constantly talking to people about class topics, and I am confident with my knowledge talking to someone. It just makes sense to make an outline of questions and then to answer each question.

Top Level Outlining

Usually there is a top level question. Professors are usually pretty good at communicating their views. Not usually about their assignment, but usually verbally, and if you listen you will pick out the points they want you to discuss in a paper. for this example, lets have some fun and talk about windsurfing!

1. Introduction – What is windsurfing?
2. What are the basic elements of windsurfing?
3. What are the different types of windsurfing?
4. Where are the best places to windsurf?
5. Conclusion – Why should someone try windsurfing?

Already we have a  pretty good outline of questions! This seems pretty short for a 2,000 word paper though, so lets break it down further.

Multi Level Outlining

Now we are going to break each of the top levels down by doing the same thing and asking a series of questions about that topic. You can go as deep as you want, but for brevity, lets only do one more level.

1. Introduction – What is windsurfing?
   1. When/where/who/how did it develop?
   2. What are some major advancements that have occurred?
2. What are the basic elements of windsurfing?
   1. Describe board/mast/sail/boom
   2. What are the different types of wind?
   3. What affect does water have on windsurfing?
3. What are the different types of windsurfing?
   1. Slalom – What type of person?
   2. Freestyle – What type of person?
   3. Wavesailing – What type of person?
4. Where are the best places to windsurf?
   1. Why is wind important, and what places have the most wind?
   2. What conditions are needed for each type of windsurfing?
   3. Where are the most popular windsurfing destinations?
5. Conclusion – Bring it all home! (Conversion: this is where you SELL IT!)
   1. Do it because I said so!

Now that would be pretty easy to write 1,000 words on, right? Usually when I’m done with my outline I have almost a full page and knocking out 2,000 words was a cinch! Usually would take me 3 hours total. The hard part was when the professor had us combine all of our 2,000 word paper into a single 800 word paper.

Hope that helps! If anyone has other tips or tricks, share with the rest of us in the comments.