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.

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