There has never been a detailed article explaining how creative work takes shape. How do you go from having a brilliant idea to having a finished product you can share with the world? All creative work needs to take form somehow, after all.

In this post, I explain how I create my creative works, from a new blog post to an original piano piece to a speech I’m preparing to give. Hopefully by the time you’re finished reading this post, you have a stronger idea of how to express your own ideas more fully. As you can tell, this post is immensely long, but incredibly detailed.

I’m not giving you the magic wand so you can make your ideas miraculously appear better with no effort. I’m giving you the instruction manual on how to make your ideas work for you. Especially in the blogosphere, there’s a growing problem with people having absolutely brilliant ideas but a really terrible time expressing said ideas. I’ve seen people think up the most insanely original ideas ever that nobody else has even thought of before, but when push came to shove, they couldn’t fully express those ideas in a form that that makes any sense.

I’m determined to fix that problem in this post. In this post, I explain six simple steps you can use to go from having a fluffy idea to a tangible product. My goal for you is to be able to take any creative idea that you have and turn it into a reality.

These six steps are fairly simple. First, you choose an idea that you like. Next, you pick a medium for your idea and you create an outline, shelling out that idea in full. Then you compose a full rough copy drawn from your outline; afterwords, you edit that copy as much as needed until you hit perfection. Last, you put the finishing touches on your final copy and you share your finished product with the world!

So what are we waiting for? Let’s dive into the first step!

1. Think of an idea.

For any creative projects to seriously take shape, you need to start with a fresh idea.

Ideas can come from anywhere. They can be suggested to you by other people. You can go around looking at other people’s various works, and think about what’s missing from their products. What didn’t other people create yet that you can present? What new flavor can you add to the mix? Ideas also can be found via inspiration, like taking a walk and simply thinking about various topics. (This is one of my personal favorite ways to create ideas for future blog posts.)

You’ll probably get lots of really bad ideas, but a couple of ideas you come up with will be golden. Take note of those golden ideas; those ideas are the ones you want to expand on.

I recently wrote on this blog about how to create brilliant ideas. You can read that post if you’re having a bit of trouble at this stage.

If you’re still having trouble creating ideas, just ask yourself these questions: What do you want to share with the world? If you were given a platform and could speak to a million people, how would you creatively express yourself? What would you want to say to all of them?

2. Pick a medium for your idea.

So you’ve come up with your amazing idea that’s going to change mankind. Fabulous! Now what do you do?

The next two steps require you to start fleshing out your idea. Now is the time you figure out what kind of medium you want your idea to reside in, and what kind of structure your idea is going to have. First, let’s discuss the aspect of the medium for your message:

A medium is a simply the format your idea is expressed in. For example, if you’re a personal development guru and you want to speak about productivity, what kind of format are you going to put your idea in? Are you going to write a detailed blog entry? Do you want to create a short eBook? Do you want to talk through your topic in a cleverly produced podcast?

Picking a medium can be tough. If you pick the wrong medium, it can totally backfire on you and cause your message to appear not as strong. If writing an eBook might be stretching out your idea way too thin, writing a simple blog entry could possibly be a much better fit. Speaking about a detailed topic through a video might leave the viewers confused if there are too many technical points; in this case, an organized eBook would work so much better. An uplifting story told through a blog post might not have the same emotional impact as if you recorded a 10 minute podcast detailing the trials and tribulations of the story.

In any case, no matter what your idea is, the goal is to choose the best medium for your message, as Steve Pavlina would say. Find something that creates a great balance between what you have to say and what format you want to use to express what you say. Overall, your chosen medium should reflect the content of your message.

3. Create a basic outline.

With your medium now chosen, it’s time to sketch out your idea in an easy outline form.

The purpose of the outline is to give your idea a clearer shape. You want to be able to take the outline you create and then used that to chisel out a rough draft of your creative work. If you skip directly from Step 2 to Step 4, the final form of your idea might not be as coherent and clearly expressed as you’d like it to be.

Outlines can come in all shapes and sizes, so use what works best for you. Some people like to create a simple bulleted list of all of their main points; I’m a big fan of this. To create my outline of this article, I used a pencil and a sheet of computer paper. I envisioned this article in my mind and spoke the entire article out loud, imagining that I was giving a podcast of this topic to an audience from ProBlogger. As I hit a main point, I would write that in with a 1.), 2.), and so on. From there, as I would detail each numbered point, I would write in more bullets and quick words and phrases that describe those main points. By the time I was done speaking, I created a terrific outline that could guide me through writing this entire post.

If you need to do any research for your idea, now is the time you’d research what you need. You want to make sure that when you write your rough copy, you’re able to express yourself with what you mean about 95% of the time. It’s okay if your rough copy is  not absolutely clear the first time around, but you want to be able to hit near clarity. A strong outline will help you.

At the very least, your outline needs to have the main aspects of your original idea. For example, if you’re preparing to give a speech, your outline needs to at least have the main points of what you’re going to be talking about, along with all of the sub-points. Then after you get the basics of your outline written out, the next step is to write down any examples, phrases, and whatever else you want to be including in your message. You do this so you don’t accidentally forget anything important.

I know it’s a bit weird to create your outline after you pick your medium, but to me it makes perfect sense: An outline you prepare for a speech will be different than if you’re creating an outline to compose a symphony, and both of those will be totally different than if you’re creating an outline for an eBook. The outline you’re going to be writing will reflect what kind of medium you’ve chosen.

4. Write your rough copy.

So you thought up an idea. You picked the perfect medium for your message, and you created your excellent outline. The next step is to express yourself into your medium while following your outline.

If you’re writing a new blog entry, write out your entire blog post. If you’re writing an eBook, do the same thing, only in smaller chunks. If you’re composing a song, it’s time to compose that entire song. If you’re preparing to give a speech, go to the mirror along with your outline and start speaking!

Remember to use your outline! Stick to your outline as close as possible. Of course, while you’re writing, there’s a good chance that a few of the points you made in your outline just won’t make the final cut. That’s okay. The idea of the outline is to give you a basic structure that you can use write from; stick to that structure. Your outline is what’s going to give your work a cohesive, whole feeling when you’re done writing. Also, remember to use your most important ideas from your outline in this rough copy – don’t leave anything important out!

While creating your rough copy, try to get as close to perfection as you can and make your ideas as presentable as possible. There are a couple of reasons for this. One, it’s going to make the editing process so much easier when you go back to edit after you’ve finished. Two, you’re going to feel as if you’re creating something worthwhile. Instead of kind of expanding on a lot of little ideas, you’re going to be working on an entire creative work.

5. Go back and edit what you’ve created.

So now that you have finished an almost complete work, it’s time to go back and edit what you’ve done so far.

Editing, if done correctly, will actually take you a lot longer than you probably are thinking. You’re going to be looking out for a lot of things while editing. Here are some questions you can ask yourself during the editing process:

• Do your words and phrases make sense? A lot of times, you’ll write or say something that you think will sound amazing, but in reality it simply doesn’t. For writers, check to see that you have your basic grammar intact and that you chose appropriate, colorful words to describe what you’re speaking about.
• Does the order and organization of your work make sense? Make sure you’re writing, explaining, or composing everything in a very clear, very concise way. Don’t leave anything up to chance. If you’re not sure that you’re clear enough, you probably aren’t. Ask around if you’re worried. The last thing you want is to leave somebody bewildered after reading or listening to what you have to present.
• Did you do your very best? Is what you’re going to present to the world the very best you have to offer? This may seem like the ultimate silly question to ask when you’re in an editing spree, but you want what you have to say to be totally you. You want it to be a work of creative self-expression, an extension of yourself. If what you’ve composed in your rough copy isn’t your very best, go back and change it up. Make sure what you have to say is the very best of what you have to offer.

There’s a bit of leeway after you get to this step – you might find yourself bouncing between multiple rough copies and editing them all at once. That’s totally okay. Occasionally if you’re doing something that’s very complicated, you can’t help but compose multiple copies.

Be ruthless with yourself. Editing is a tough skill to master, but it’s completely worth it in the long run. Your work will appear much more thoughtful, organized, and impressive if you take the time to trim the fat off of your creative works.

Don’t rush this step, either. Especially if you’re created something that’s long, it’s going to feel like an eternity to edit everything. That’s just to be expected. Slow yourself down, take everything word by word, note by note. You want something that’s your best; you want something that’s perfect.

6. Share your finished project!

You’re done editing. Now is the time to read, hear, or see what you’ve created one last time before you begin sharing it with other people. Go back to the questions I asked above in the editing section and ask yourself those questions again for the final time.

Make sure that what you’ve created is truly the very best of what you can offer.

Creative work needs to be shared, right? Now is the fun part – now you get to share what you’ve done with everybody else! (Okay, so at least it’s the most fun part for me!) Speak that speech in front of everybody. Create a video of your brand new song and share it with the world. Publish that new blog post and get it out there! Pass your work around to your family and friends, promote your work on forums, get people to notice what you’ve done. Believe in what you’ve created, you worked hard!

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To create an awesome blog post – every single time – takes practice. But you need to have some strong basics to start from. I hope this post will truly help you when creating any kind of creative work.

So… what are you waiting for? Why aren’t you off creating something new today? Come on, get to it Remember to start at Step 1!