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You are a new writer. You want to write a short story, a poem, an essay, or an article. You have a topic in mind. What do you do next?

First: Write your topic at the top of a piece of paper or your word processing document.

Second: Brainstorm. Write down every word, phrase, associated topic, explanation, argument, memory, statistic, character, setting - whatever springs to mind - when you look at the name of your topic. Don't second-guess yourself. Brainstorming is not the time for editing.

Third: Rank your ideas. Go through every idea you've generated and note which ones really address the questions or concerns that prompted you to write. Which ones grab your attention? Which ones evoke strong emotions? Which ones arouse your curiosity? Which ones can be combined into stronger, more interesting ideas? Those are the ones to concentrate on. Rank them in order from most to least interesting.

Fourth: Pick the best idea and start writing about it. Say anything you want. Don't niggle with spelling and grammar. No one will read this unless you allow them to.

As you write, you may realize that some of the other ideas you generated may fit in very nicely here and there. Go for it. Write as much as you can, as fully as you can about your first idea. If you run out of creative steam, begin writing about your second idea. Keep going until you think you've generated enough material to really create a truly interesting and informing work.

Fifth: Write an outline. Read through everything you've written, including your list of ideas. Begin constructing your outline. This may be as elaborate as the Roman numeral outlines you learned in school or as simple as a shopping list. Perhaps a list somewhat similar in structure to the one I used to organized this essay. Go over your outline until you're satisfied that it includes all your points in the order you want to present them.

Sixth: Write your first draft. When I'm writing a draft, I simply write what I believe needs to be said behind each bullet point in the outline. Again, don't worry overly much about precise wording, grammar, or spelling. If you're unsure about a word, place it in brackets with a question mark. Or leave a blank underline there to be filled later with the correct word. Don't slow down to deal with these issues. Save detailed revision for the end of this process.

Try to squeeze every point you've thought of earlier along with every additional point that is occurring to you while write this draft. You may cut later.

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