Here is one of the most common questions in the world of writing: Do you outline? It garners wildly different answers, from writers who plan out every word (planners) to those who write by the seat of their pants (pantsers). There’s no right answer, but if you’re intimidated by the idea of writing a whole book, an outline can be a great way to get started.
Even if you don’t want to make a super detailed outline, there is still some organization you should do on the front end to make writing easier for yourself. The best thing about outlining in any form is that it isn’t permanent. Your outline can be edited at any moment—and it may just provide the push you need to get writing.
Here are five tips from Ballast Books’s editors to guide you as you outline your book, whether you consider yourself a planner or a pantser.
1. Prepare your elevator pitch.
Before you begin outlining, you need to know what exactly you’re outlining. Now, you don’t need to have everything figured out, but you should be able to write a short paragraph describing your book. If someone asked you about what you’re writing in an elevator, what would you tell them? This can, of course, change throughout the writing process, but it will be a foundation you can return to as you flesh out your idea.
2. Find the beats.
In Save the Cat Writes a Novel, Jessica Brody repurposes Blake Snyder’s fifteen beats of a film for authors. She argues that each great novel follows a similar structure with fifteen main plot points. Although she doesn’t mention this, the same goes for nonfiction books, especially memoirs, which still use key points and an engaging structure to develop a compelling story. The beats are similar to the standard structure of beginning, middle, and end, but they go much more in detail and provide a larger framework for you to work with (such as Opening Image, Catalyst, Fun & Games, etc.). You can use the Save the Cat Beat Sheet to create a general outline and fill in the gaps as you go.
3. Create character profiles.
Even if you aren’t writing fiction, your book probably has some important characters. Everything you write should be informed by your characters’ actions, so a great way to create an outline is to just ask yourself, What would this character do next?
Creating a character profile helps you get to know the people in charge of your book. Think of it like a Q&A. What do you look like? What is your relationship with your parents? What do you want more than anything? It will be much easier to write when you’ve built a relationship with your characters. You might even find that they start leading you, not the other way around.
With nonfiction, it might be even more important to keep track of the people in your book and their role in your story. Who has made an impact on your life or research? Are there people you need to interview? How have these outside forces changed your narrative, and how will you represent them in writing? You don’t want to get to the end and realize you left out a key player, so planning not just the events but also the people in your story will help you widen your scope and write with intent.
4. Develop a structure.
Even if you’ve written short-form works like essays or poems, a book is a whole other beast. It requires a lot more structuring, no matter the genre. If you just jump in, you might end up with too many chapters, not enough chapters, or a bunch that don’t work together cohesively. An outline will save you the headache of trying to restructure your entire book later. If you’re writing a novel, will it be separated into parts? How many chapters will be in each part? What needs to happen in each part for the story to move forward? (Once again, refer to your Save the Cat Beat Sheet.)
If you’re writing nonfiction, try creating a table of contents. Write down the themes you want to expand on and the research you’ve done and separate them into chapters. If you’re working on a memoir, chapters may need to be separated by years and settings. No matter the case, without a structure, your various vignettes will collapse into nothing. Just like a building, a book needs a structure before you can begin decorating.
5. Start storyboarding.
If you’re a visual or hands-on learner, you might have difficulty planning the sixty thousand (or however many) words you have to write on a computer screen. Luckily, storyboarding is a great way to visualize the major points of your book. Try writing or drawing the things you know you want to happen on pieces of paper or sticky notes, then hang them on your wall or a bulletin board. (Yes, you may look like that meme of a guy with red strings strung across his wall, but they do say madness is genius.) You could even write everything on a whiteboard or create a digital storyboard! It’s up to you—the point is to get your ideas out there physically so you can see the big picture and start writing.
Whether you draw a whole map for your fantasy world before you even begin writing or throw everything onto a page and hope something sticks, planning in whatever form works for you will ultimately be helpful in the long run. If you need more guidance, Ballast Books can set you up with an author coach or acquisitions editor to get the gears turning. Submit your book idea to us here and let us help you turn your outline into a published book.