I’ve written in the past that traditional outlines don’t really work all that well for me. Even back when I was forced to use them in school, I found myself writing the paper, then going back and recreating the outline. So I don’t typically use outlines for the majority of my blog posts. I do, however, find that I need to at least get some thoughts down on paper before I begin writing. I’ve also found that I need to capture those thoughts when they first hit me, or chances are they will be gone forever.

What works best for me is to write down as many ideas as I can related to the topic. I can then go back through that list and pull out the points that I want to write about. Any of the remaining ideas may or may not be used in later posts. Once I have my list of ideas, I can put them in whatever order I think makes some semblance of order, then I begin writing.

I have played around a little with using mind-maps to help organize my ideas. Although it works far better for me than traditional outlines, it still doesn’t feel natural to use it. I do like the fact that I can connect ideas together in ways that you can’t with an outline, and that you can move ideas around without losing those connections.

The biggest thing for me is to make sure I get something down to at least shine a little light on the path I’m going to be traveling down.

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