When I started writing, I used to jump directly into writing on a blank page. It might work for creative writing; however, technical writing is much different.
Goals of creating the outline
- Technical concepts are challenging, sometimes even dull. It’s your job as a writer to make them digestible. Creating an outline helps you with that; it helps you in weaving the story for the topic.
- Give your perspective on how your article or blog post will look.
Tips
- It sounds obvious; however, it’s easy to forget it. Think about what you’re readers need to know to begin. That’s your starting point.
- Do you have any prerequisites? If yes, write them up-front.
- Try to avoid perfecting your outline. Once you have an outline covering everything you want to say, stop there!
- Use the same tool for creating an outline that you’ll use for actual content. I use Markdown for my courses and blog posts. I write the outline in the same document.
Exercise
Remember that you chose a topic in the previous exercise? It’s time to create an outline for that topic.
- Create an outline that covers the essential things.
- Once you have that, go deeper by creating the outline for sub-topics.