Learning how to write an outline is an extremely undervalued skill for most content creators.
Not only is outlining an excellent way to organize your thoughts and ideas, but it can also help you:
- Write clearer, more cohesive copy
- Cut the fluff/filler
- Save time/write faster
Unfortunately, not all of us know how to go about writing an outline. That’s why today’s guide is here. Bonus: Learn how solid AI writing tools can help shave time and frustration off this part of the process. 📝
Learning How to Write an Outline Is a Valuable Skill
Most people have a hard time writing an outline because they believe you need to have all the answers first, before creating a well-planned outline.
Nope.
The purpose of an outline is to help you structure your content. It’s not supposed to be a checklist of everything you need to know about the topic. It’s to help you hit all the critical points and make sure you don’t miss important details.
By simply organizing what you already know, you can then expand upon those initial ideas.
Creating even the most basic of outlines can help you reduce your workload because it may significantly cut down on the amount of time it takes to create your content.
Studies show that nearly 57% of bloggers spend three or more hours creating a single piece of content.
Source: Statista
Given the average word count for a blog falls around 2,164 words, that’s quite a bit of time that goes into the researching and writing of a single piece.
An outline can help you cut this process down quite significantly by:
- Organizing the information you already know
- Giving you a way to structure your ideas
- Helping you make sure you hit all the essential points
- Writing cohesive copy
If you’ve struggled with outlining in the past, then you’ll be excited to know that the power of AI writing can make outlining just a little bit easier.
AI writing tools can capture and analyze the thoughts and ideas that you already have. As a result, they can structure and organize your content into a coherent outline for you.
Don’t believe us?
It’s okay – it can be hard to grasp the idea of how to write an outline using AI writing tools such as HyperWrite, and that’s why we’ve broken it down for you.
How to Write an Outline Using AI Writing: 5 Steps Using HyperWrite
Whether you’re looking for tips on how to write an outline for a book or how to write an outline for a research paper – AI writing tools can help.
Using our AI technology, you can easily create an effective outline.
When you first open a new HyperWrite document, you’ll be asked right off the bat how much help you want from the AI software. You get to choose from four options:
- Yolo, I can do this on my own: selecting this option will open a blank document and allow you to start writing independently. You can also choose the “Outline” option and create an outline all your own by entering new sections and section notes to help guide your writing process.
- I have a plan: selecting this option will open up a blank outline for you, allowing you to insert your section ideas and add section notes to help guide your process.
- Walk me through this: This option will allow you to work with the AI writing software to generate an outline from scratch.
- Load Existing Outline: If you’ve already worked with an outline and saved it for later use, you can select this option and get to work.
For the sake of this tutorial, let’s start from scratch and let HyperWrite help us build our outline with the help of their AI bot, Hyper.
Step 1: “Walk Me Through This”
If you’re just learning how to write an outline using AI writing software, HyperWrite’s “Walk me through this” option is the best place to start.
When you open up a new document, go ahead and select this option.
Step 2: Explain to Hyper What You’re Writing About
Once you’ve selected the “walk me through this” option, you are greeted by the HyperWrite AI writing bot, Hyper.
Hyper is an AI chatbot built to help guide you in creating the best outline for your specific needs. To get started, simply tell Hyper what you plan on writing about.
For example, we told Hyper we wanted to write an informative blog on the benefits of home births for women.
From there, Hyper analyzed our input and asked us to clarify the topic, which we did by selecting “yes.” The bot then went to work and even asked us if we wanted to write an academic paper instead of a blog, to which we answered “no,” since our ideal platform will be a blog.
This gave Hyper enough information to suggest a few different outline options. Once we picked the one that seemed to suit our needs the most, we were able to move on to the next step.
Step 3: Choosing Your Outline
Hyper then analyzes the information we’ve already fed to it and then generates several blog outline options for us to choose from.
What’s important to note here is you should not expect the AI software to do all the work for you. The goal is to have the software make the necessary suggestions to get you started, and then you will take the reins and make the real magic happen.
In our case, Hyper suggested three possible outlines for us to choose from, each of which was very basic in nature. While this may seem frustrating for some, you need to remember that AI doesn’t have the capability to think for you.
It is making its suggestions based on the limited information that we have fed it up until this point. Given the fact that we simply told Hyper we wanted to write a blog about the benefits of home births for women, these outlines are a fantastic starting point to help us move onto the next step.
Step 4: Refining Your Outline
Now, as a creative, this is where the real fun begins. Once you’ve selected an outline to work with, the outlining process doesn’t end there.
To make the most of your AI writing, you need to take a few minutes to refine the outline you’ve chosen.
What’s wonderful about HyperWrite is that once you’ve selected your outline, it’s not set in stone.
You have the option of moving sections around, renaming them, and adding additional notes to each section. Doing so allows you better control over the AI outputs during the writing process and helps guide the software in the direction you want it to go.
You even have the option of adding new sections to the outline!
In our example, we added a section titled “What Makes Home Births Different” and added a few notes to the section about the desired information we would like to include under this new subheader.
Naturally, once we added the section, it automatically added it to the end of the outline. However, we were easily able to move it up to where we wanted it.
Step 5: Start Writing!
Once we were happy with our outline, we were ready to start writing.
HyperWrite went ahead and marked our outline on our open document, and then it was up to us to start putting the words together. It was a satisfying feeling to see our outline come to life.
Simply speaking, the end result was a quick and easy way to get our thoughts and ideas organized and helped us write a cohesive piece of content.
Combine the Power of an Outline with AI Writing with the Help of HyperWrite
Learning how to write an effective outline for your content takes time and practice. However, it’s also a skill that never goes out of style, especially if you’re looking for a career in writing.
It’s even listed as one of the most in-demand writing skills for those looking to find employment as a content creator, alongside other skills such as:
- Editing
- Researching
- Time management
Luckily, learning how to write an outline using AI writing can help you improve your outlining abilities and help with your other skillsets as well! With the right AI writing software, you can significantly cut down on your outlining time and assist you in your researching and editing abilities!
With the help of tools such as HyperWrite’s Hyper chatbot, developing your skills as a writer has never been easier. Don’t take it from us – see what our users have said thus far! From students to professional writing agencies alike, the consensus is the same:
Want to experience the simplicity of writing an outline using AI writing? Start your free trial of HyperWrite today!
