When it comes to writing your book, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. You may be looking at how many pages you need to fill or how many words you have to write to complete your book. But don’t give up before you get started. There are plenty of ways you can break down this large goal into smaller, more achievable tasks. You can take the first steps toward writing your book by following this guide…
Create an Outline
An outline allows you to look at the overall vision you have for your book. It functions like a roadmap, showing you which path to take and highlighting milestones along the way.
The important thing to remember is your roadmap isn’t set in stone. If you find something that interests you, it’s fine to stop and spend some time examining it. You may discover that stopping to chase a tangent turned into your favorite chapter of your book.
If you do try something new or explore a story that doesn’t fit with the rest of your book, you can always cut it out later. So, don’t panic if you go off-track sometimes.
Before you begin mapping out your path, it can be helpful to define the premise of your book. You should be able to spell out what your book is about within a sentence or two. For example, the premise of John Green’s popular novel, The Fault in Our Stars, could be summed up like this: Two terminally ill teens find love together.
The premise for a popular non-fiction book titled The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo would be: A cleaning consultant teaches readers how to organize their homes by focusing on what items bring them true joy.
Now that you have a couple of examples, spend a few minutes thinking about the premise of your book. Jot it down and remember you can always revise it later if you change the direction of your manuscript.
Once you’re clear on your premise, it’s time to start your outline. You can outline your book in a variety of ways but one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to do this is to use sticky notes or index cards. When you use this method, it’s easy to organize your thoughts.
You want to write down what you know will be part of your book. If you know that a funny story from your childhood will be the introduction for chapter three, put that on a note card. Keep adding ideas, putting each one on its own card.
When you’ve exhausted all of your ideas, tack up your notes or spread them out on a table or other hard surface. This is where you start looking for gaps and fill them in. For example, if you want to touch on your character’s tragic backstory before a pivotal scene, add a note mentioning that. If you want to talk about self-esteem boosters for kids in chapter four, make a note for that, too.
When you’re done, you should have the bare bones of your book. You can go in during the writing process and add more details in each chapter. But for now, you can use your notes as progress trackers to ensure you’re covering every point you wanted to make.