Why Outlining Keeps “Article Bloating” In Check

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”.

A movie needs drama.
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.

In a matter of minutes your article can bloat out of control
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.

And you'd be wrong on both fronts…
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.

So let's see how an article can get bloated
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.

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.

– Examples of price increases
– Summary

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.

There's an added bonus to outlining
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.

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.

You also don't have to rigidly stick to an outline format
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.

Bloat can be avoided and should be avoided.
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.

P.S. Here's the outline to this specific article.
– 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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