Writing Your Book – Step 4 – Creating an Outline

Congratulations! You’re finally taking the steps necessary to get your story in draft form and on its way to being published! If you’ve been following for a few days and have completed the first few steps in this process then you’re ready for Step 4. Let’s get started….

Today you will reread your first 350 words. Every word represents a step toward completion, so take a brief moment, smile, and know that you are on your way to your goal. Don’t do rewrites yet unless you need to make a change in the direction of the story. For now we’re just focusing on getting a draft down with which to work. Don’t forget that the goal is to actually write the book….editing comes later.

You may or may not have a clear picture in your head about the conflicts, and eventual resolution that will happen later in your story. But we’re going to begin mapping it out now.

Just as we did on the first day, we are going to write ten sentences. However, today, those sentences will all represent a chapter, conflict, or resolution that will occur in the story. All ten sentences will follow the path you’ve begun in those first 350 words and carry the story through to the end.

Remember that you don’t necessarily have to write all ten in the order they will happen. Just get your thoughts down on paper. Think of it as brainstorming if that helps.  You may want to include:

• Important scenes
• Chapter titles or main ideas
• An idea for the perfect ending
• Ideas for alternate endings
• Back story elements (things that happened in the past but that are important information for your readers to know)

Write at least ten, but you can do twelve if that’s what you need to tell the story. Think of it like a quick explanation of the entire story in 10 to 12 sentences. Once you feel satisfied that you’ve got a good outline going, put them in some sort of logical order. These sentences will become the chapters and important scenes for the rest of your book but they don’t have to be complete yet.  This may not be your final outline, but it will help you keep your thoughts organized for the rest of the writing process. Don’t worry that you don’t have specific details filled in for everything. It will come.

Now stop and ask yourself….did you ever think you could get to the point that you have a working outline in just 4 days? I’m really proud of those of you who are taking these steps and you should be proud, too. For today I want to give you one more assignment….think of it as homework. Sometime in the next 24 hours I want you to tell someone you care about that you’ve finally started your book. Many of you, including my own cousin, Belinda, have confessed that people have been telling you for years that you should write your story. And now you are. You have a right to be proud of the steps you are taking, so tell someone and then enjoy the pat on the back that you get from them. You deserve it.  See you tomorrow!