Why Outlining Keeps "Article Bloating" In Check

by Sean D'Souza

If you were to walk into a Hollywood studio, you'd expect to see
actors, lights and action, right?

Right. But actors, camera and lights are expensive. So every movie
director and producer on the planet does one thing: They outline.
They outline the script. They outline the storyboard. They outline
every darned thing that can be outlined. And the reason for the
outline is indeed to save huge wastage of time and money. But it's
also to avoid the "bloat factor".

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A movie needs drama.
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It needs action.
It needs flow.
It needs storyline.
It needs a beginning and an end.

And it sure as heck doesn't need to meander and bloat. And
outlining enables you to immediately see where the script is going
out of control. An article careens out of control as well if not
managed well.

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In a matter of minutes your article can bloat out of control
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If you start to write, you'll find you get ideas. Those ideas lead
to more ideas. And those ideas lead to um, even more ideas. Of
course you try and put all the ideas together. Or decide that all
the ideas aren't a good idea and then you start to edit. You go
back and forth, adding or editing. And then tiredness sets in. And
frustration.

At which point you decide that either article writing is a pain in
the butt, or the article you're writing is really not worth the
trouble.

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And you'd be wrong on both fronts...
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Your article went off the rails at the very start when you failed
to outline. An outline gives you a clear start, middle set of
questions (how, why, what, when etc) and ending.

If the bloating starts to occur, you can see it all in the outline
itself. And you can move the "bloated section" or extraneous
ideas aside. And guess what? You're still outlining. You haven't
written a word of the article.

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So let's see how an article can get bloated
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Example Topic: How to increase prices without losing customers
- Why increase prices.
- How customers respond to increased prices (and how to avoid
losing them).
- The problem with reduced prices.
- How the yes-yes factor helps increases prices systematically.
- How to create a yes-yes factor to increase prices.
- The yes-yes factor grid
- Examples of price increases
- Summary

Now that's just the outline and you already see it's swaying wildly
without even writing a single word of the article. You can spot the
yes-yes factor jump in.

And then the yes-yes factor grid pops in without notice and
suddenly the article's gone off the rails. If you sat down to
write this article, you'd be writing and writing and then writing
some more. Then you'd spend endless time editing. And that's not
much good.

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Instead we do all our primary editing at the outline stage.
===============================================
Example Topic: How to increase prices without losing customers
- Why increase prices.
- How customers respond to increased prices (and how to avoid
losing them).
- The problem with reduced prices.
- How the yes-yes factor helps increases prices systematically.
- How to create a yes-yes factor to increase prices.
- The yes-yes factor grid
- Examples of price increases
- Summary

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And there you have it, you've done your editing and removed the
bloat
===============================================
In removing what you don't need (at least for now), you're left
with what you need. And this process of outlining isn't restricted
to just articles or Hollywood movies. In fact it's only the
stubborn and incompetent folk who fail to outline.

The professionals all engage in outlining. Look at an architect's
drawing, a Boeing design, a cartoon sketch, a travel itinerary, a
trip to the supermarket, the lyrics of a song--and you'll see
outlines in all of them.

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There's an added bonus to outlining
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It keeps you focused. This article was about "bloating". And you
read about "bloating, bloating, bloating, and more bloating." If
the outline wasn't in place, it's easier to head off into a
slightly different direction. But with the outline in place, you
stay on target.

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But should there be some level of "creativity" in the writing?
===============================================
Outlining doesn't stop you from adding flair, drama or even an
additional paragraph here or there. For example when the outline
for this article was put together, this paragraph didn't exist in
the outline.

But because I had the outline in place, I had the liberty of
putting in an additional paragraph without disrupting the core
idea that the article is seeking to portray. Outlines don't stop
you from adding your own touch.

In fact, because you have so much less frustration and editing,
you're more than likely to have time to add a factor of creativity.

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You also don't have to rigidly stick to an outline format
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In the outline format for any article you tend to have the opening,
the ending and the middle section of how, what, why, when etc. If
you find that you don't need to add in a "when", then you can omit
it from the outline.

But having it all in front of you as part of the outline gives you
the freedom to put it in, or remove it. And to do so without wasting
time writing the article, only to find it doesn't fit in, and has
unnecessarily bloated your article.

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Bloat can be avoided and should be avoided.
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And you can do it easily by instilling the discipline of the
outline--even when free writing. And the greater the cost, the
more detailed the outline.

Just like they do in Hollywood. Or Boeing. Or any place where they
want to save time, money and frustration.

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P.S. Here's the outline to this specific article.
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- Drama: What happens before a movie is shot (storyboarding)
- The reason for outlining: Keeping Bloat Away
- How Bloating Pops Up Incessantly
- How To Beat the Incessant Bloat
- Examples of detecting bloat in an article. (Put two examples here)
- Examples of Industries that Outline: Architect, Cartoonists,
Plane Designers. And why they do so.
- Summary.

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What success have you had with outlining?