This is part 2 of a three part series. See part one here.
Brainstorming & Research
Once I have an idea, I pull out two of my favorite tools: a nice pen and paper. Recently, I’ve been partial to large sketchbooks for the writing area they offer, but I’m also a fan of legal pads or large whiteboards with nice markers (I’m planning to build one out of showerboard soon). I will jot down everything I know or think I know about my idea, then start scouring the internet to add some meat. There’s no particular rhyme or reason to my notes at this stage, only my raw ideas. I also start a bookmark folder on my toolbar to capture links. There are digital tools (like Microsoft OneNote or EverNote) out there if it’s your thing; I just prefer pen and paper.
It’s really easy to go down “rabbit trails” while researching; you start following links, and the next thing you know you’ve been looking at club-footed penguins for twenty minutes. I used to just start a new window, but now I keep a bookmark folder called “Inbox” where I toss all the links that I want to see some time, but don’t want to be distracted by now. It’s part of my GTD workflow, but that’s another story for another time.
During my research, I’m pretty much just spitting out ideas. Facts, assumptions, how I want to structure the article–I’m not picky or overly organized. I’ll decide its relevance (if it has any at all) later.
Organizing My Thoughts: Outline Versus First Draft
I sometimes have a bunch of ideas, and don’t know quite how to organize them. In my opinion, the organization of a blog post is the most vital piece of it. At the end of the day, I am trying to communicate an idea from myself to another person, and how quickly they understand it is a direct reflection of my ability to communicate it to them.
One way I will start organizing is to look for possible subheadings that will give the post its form. This is simply outlining the post, and it’s helpful because I can quickly come up with several different organizations to see what makes the most sense.
The other way is just to start writing. If I don’t really know what how I want to organize, I just start a first draft and organization usually begins to emerge before I’ve finished.
I’ll wrap this up in Part 3 by showing you how to assemble these steps and build a final post. Stay tuned!
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