Outlining an article using clusters (or mind mapping) is a great way of organising your thoughts, knowledge and ideas when you're still in the planning stage of an article.

The concept of clustering isn't new but many writers struggle to understand how it can help. Hopefully by the end of this article you'll have a better understanding of how and why clustering works, and have a go a building your own cluster when you're planning your next article.

For those who're new to clustering, the basic idea is that you write your central idea or theme in the middle of a large sheet of paper and you draw a circle around it.

From the central idea you start to build more, related, ideas which all get written on the sheet, in their own circles, with straight connecting lines joining them to the centre circle.

Some of these secondary offshoots in the cluster will trigger their own ideas, in which case you write and circle those offshoot ideas with lines connecting them to the secondary idea that sparked them.

You continue in this manner until you're out of ideas. One of the most important things to remember about clustering, however, is that all ideas that pop into your mind must be included. Even the remote, unconnected, random, silly-seeming ones because it's these very 'off the wall' ideas that can sometimes give a fresh angle or a new, surprising perspective to a topic.

It's these surprises which give a piece of writing that spark of originality, and as a writer that's what you're looking for. Writing that is yours alone. Writing that sets you apart. In short, writing that bears your own unique stamp.

Some writers prefer to make lists, but with lists your mind is forced to think in a linear fashion. Logic can get in the way of creativity.

When you're clustering the page tends to look messy, with ideas scrawled all over the place and lines going this way and that joining them up. With idea generation 'messy' is good because unexpected connections can be made between seemingly unconnected ideas.

With a linear list the temptation is to place the more important item at the top, even if it's subconscious. With a cluster of ideas there is no 'top', so nothing has more importance until you decide it does.

How do you shape an article after clustering?

First read through your circled ideas. When you've got a good idea of everything you've noted down, start numbering them in order of importance or relevance to the piece you're writing. Now is the time to start making linear lists, if they're what you prefer to work from.

Note down all the points you want to cover in your article, then organise the points so that you have a logical progression through beginning, middle and end.

When you know the outline of your article, and how one idea is going to link to the next idea, it makes the actual writing so much easier. You no longer get stuck half way through because you're not sure what to include next, you'll never run out of ideas for your article before you've hit your word target, and you totally eliminate the temptation of meaningless padding when the word count seems miles away.

I prefer to make clusters with good old fashioned pen and paper, but if you prefer to use a computer there is some good clustering software out there, including Buzan's iMindMap and Inspiration, as well as a free programme called Cayra.

Next time you're planning a piece of writing, try clustering your ideas to get the outline. Since I took up the habit the planning stage has become a whole lot more enjoyable.

And as a bonus, I often find that ideas I can't use for one article can generate a whole new cluster for a new article.

See the basic mind map cluster, produced using Buzan's iMindMap, in planning this article