What is writing everything you know about your topic on paper prior to starting a writing project called?

Writing everything you know about your topic on paper before beginning a writing project is known as brainstorming. This process often involves free-form writing or generating a list of ideas and concepts related to the topic without worrying about structure or organization. The goal of brainstorming is to unlock creativity and identify various angles and points of interest that can be further explored in the writing project.

This method enables writers to visualize their thoughts and can lead to unexpected insights or connections that enhance the substance of the final piece. Brainstorming serves as a valuable pre-writing stage that helps writers clarify their thoughts and identify the key themes they wish to focus on.

While outlining, researching, and drafting are all critical stages of the writing process, they occur after the brainstorming phase. Outlining involves organizing the ideas generated during brainstorming into a structured format, researching provides external information to support the writing, and drafting is the actual act of composing the text based on the brainstormed ideas and outlined structure.