Writing Tip: Outline

As a writing teacher, one mistake I see writers make again and again is leaving out detail so that the text leaps or jumps without explanation. If you want to avoid this, you'll need to slow down the writing process a bit and make sure that each sentence clearly leads to the next.

How to do this? Outline. For real. Completely old school, I know, but even J.K. Rowling does it.

A basic outline will have the main events of your story or document, leading to the conclusion or outcome. If you're new to outlining, I recommend trying it out with a basic outline and a short story. Heck, try it with a brief reflection of your day.

Title your document "My Day"

Then try an outline like this:

Morning
Lunch
Afternoon
Evening
Dinner
Night

Then try to write out as much detail as possible to fill in your beginner's outline. This will help you get into the practice of providing more detail than you might think necessary, which will help you avoid the pesky leaps in logic I see in so many beginning writers' drafts.

Write on with your bad self.