Outline a post from a one-line topic

Turn a one-line topic into a locked outline with three starter questions, pouring out every idea, then filtering it by the core message.

The outline is the script of your post, and you lock it before you write a single word. This page takes you from a one-line topic to a locked outline, usually six to eight main ideas, ready for the Write step. It is the Idea step of the Idea - Write - Edit process.

This page is for you when you have a topic you understand deeply and want to share. If the topic is something you only know a little about, the outline will not come: pick another topic first. If you already have an outline and want to write now, read Write a first draft in one go from the outline.

What do you need to build an outline?

A topic, in one line or just a title.
Real knowledge of that topic. You know it and understand it deeply. You have run into it yourself, and you do not just know a little about it.
A way to pour out ideas: pen and paper, a text editor, or a recording app on your phone.
The post type. You know whether this is a Know post, a Trust post or a Love post in the funnel, because the question set and the shape of the outline follow the post type.

If you record, prepare a set of guiding questions for the post type first. Cuong calls this set the idea-starter structure: it guides what you will talk about, while the sharp ideas only show up after the recording is done. Give the one-line topic and the post type to AI with the prompt for a question set. The number of questions is not a standard. This is Cuong’s current set, with a limit for each post type:

Post type	Cuong’s current set	The question set focuses on
Know post	About 16	Explaining so customers understand
Trust post	About 26	Each step of the work
Love post	About 36	Strategy, process and meaning

Build an outline from a one-line topic

The three steps below go from one line to a locked outline: pour out every idea, filter by the core message, then lock.

Pour out every idea with three starter questions

Go offline and answer from what you already know, with no looking anything up. If you have a question set, read each question out loud and answer it. With no AI or internet, you can still start with three starter questions, which Cuong also calls the three root questions:

What is it? Name it and define it in your own words.
How does it work? How it runs, how you do it.
Why does it matter? To you, and to your customers.

Once you have answered, do not stop: each answer pulls in new ideas, memories and stories. Cuong usually records at this step. A personal story that relates to an idea goes straight into the recording. It fits into the post, so you do not need to record it separately.

While you pour out ideas, repeating yourself or stumbling is fine. You will see dozens of ideas, sometimes fifty, on paper or in the recording.

Filter the ideas by the core message

Put every idea in one place so you can see them all. AI does this very fast: give it the transcript and ask it to group the ideas and split them into separate ones. Write the core message from the three parts of the context:

Who your customer is.
What their problem is.
What your solution is (Create a core message).

Go through each idea and ask: does it serve the core message? Keep the ones that do, save the rest for other posts, and drop the extra ideas and the ones that miss the topic. Each idea you keep comes with a short paragraph of about 300 words, which is easier to picture than a bullet point. In Cuong’s example, he poured out about 50 ideas, and filtering by the message left 7.

Go deeper, put the ideas in order and lock the outline

If your first round was shallow, do an extra recording, one more round about only the ideas you kept: clearer, deeper, with no repeats. If your first round already answered every question in the set, you do not need it. Cuong finds that a second round then adds only about 20%, which is not worth the effort.

Put the ideas in the order the reader needs to go through them. Give each main idea a short, plain title with no fancy words, no slang and no metaphors, because both readers and AI scan these titles.

AI can squeeze a long idea into one sentence, and then you fix it so it says what you mean. Adjust the post title to match the main ideas. Do not write an opening here: an outline has no opening. You will have an outline made of the post title and the main ideas, usually six to eight.

Talking is fast, so it loses the quiet moments for deep thinking. You make up for it at the locking step: you switch from the talking role to the listening role and read your own transcript in the quiet. Check whether the topic holds up, whether you went deep enough, which idea is missing, and type it in right then. Do not lock it right away.

How do you know the outline is ready to lock?

Read the main idea titles from top to bottom, as a stranger seeing the post for the first time.

Can you see the message? If not, rewrite the core message and filter the ideas again.
Do the ideas flow? If there is a jump, change the order or add the missing idea.
Is any idea exactly like someone else’s post? If so, put your own story and experience into it.
Is there a title you have to read twice to understand? If so, rewrite it plainly, with no metaphors or fancy words.
Is there an idea you still only half understand? Mark it. You fill that gap in the handover to the Write step, before you go offline.
Do you like it when you read it back? If you do, lock the outline. This is where the Idea step stops.

If the outline does not come out as expected

You recorded 10,000 words but the post keeps only 1,000

You jumped into recording with no structure, so you repeated yourself, said the same idea twice and drifted off the post. What you said is not lost: you keep it for other posts. But this post can use only a small part of it. That is lost productivity, not lost words.

Next time, prepare a set of guiding questions first. When what you say stays close to the post, 10,000 words become 5,000, and with a good structure, 7,000.

You go blank on a question

Going blank is normal. Note any question you cannot answer, or can answer only halfway, keep going with the others, then look it up and learn more to fill that blind spot yourself.

You cannot answer the three starter questions

You do not understand the topic deeply enough to share it yet. Drop this post, or learn more and come back.

The outline drags on for four or five days

Time piling up in the Idea step shows you are getting stuck there. How to get unstuck is in Fix a stuck Idea - Write - Edit step.

Outline from one line