If you asked me to list the three fears I picked up in high school English, they would be diagramming sentences, red ink and outlining. I’ve never gotten past my red ink complex, but I can now see the true value in outlining any writing project before touching fingers to the keyboard. Contractors don’t build houses without blueprints. You can’t write something big (especially a book) and not use an outline; it’s the writer’s blueprint. The two most popular techniques are the mind map and the chapter-by-chapter outline. You can use them separately, or start with the mind map and expand into the…
