Why Outlining Your Book Is Easy with a Template

You’re ready to start sharing your story with the world. You just know that the words you share will help others. But the thought of writing that book is overwhelming. I know, I’ve had the same thoughts. I still get overwhelmed when I first start to write my books. I’ve learned though, that taking it one step at a time and having some general templates can help make the process easier.

Hi-ya fellow author! If this is your first time here, let me introduce myself.  I’m an author of both self-published and published work. I help soul based women turn their healing story into a book that makes an impact and changes their lives.

In today’s post I wanted to share my thoughts on why you should use a template to help you outline your novel.  There are a million ways to outline your book and everyone does it differently. I wanted to share one technique that might work for you.

Why You Need an Outline

First though, why do you need an outline. Can’t you just start writing?

Well you could.

But what often happens is you get somewhere in the middle of your book and realize the chapter you are working on needs to go closer to the beginning. Or you get off track and the end of your book doesn’t have anything to do with the topic.

Plus an outline helps in know what your book is about. If someone asks you,  you can quickly summarize it because you’ve already created the basis of the story.

Using outline helps in other ways as well.

1. Avoid Writer’s block. You can simply look at your outline and you’ll know what you need to write about.

2. You’ll be motivated. Your outline keeps you focused on your end goal and reminds you that you can complete the book if you follow through the outline.

Using a Template

I’m one of those writers who would rather just create the main chapter headings instead of filling out a real outline. I don’t recommend this, especially for your first or second book.

I know that filling out the outline gives  a better flow of what you want to say. And it helps eliminate some of the editing later on. I hated starting from scratch each time . That’s why I created a template that I can use. It already has the format I need.

This approach makes it pretty easy to write a book quickly because all you have to do is fill in the sections, and follow them as you’re writing your book. Here is an example of an outline for a book about training puppies.

Here’s a basic outline:
1.) Introduction:
a. How to raise puppies that are well behaved
b. No chewed up shoes or furniture
c. Well-behaved dog with less stress
d. My dog story
e. How this book will help you
2.) How to teach my puppy to only chew on toys
a. How I did it
b. which chew toys are best
c. misbehavior and disciplining
d. rewarding
3.) What to do when my dog misbehaves, how to discipline them
a. This is what I did
b. Crate vs no crating
c. Treats, voice commands
4.) Teaching my puppy to listen to commands
a. This is what I did
b. Whistles, tools or other devices
c. Show them who is the leader
d. Voice or hand signals
5.) Conclusion
a. Summary of what I talked about
b. This is the next thing to do in training your puppy
c. Call to action – Get this product for easier puppy training

The sample outline only has five chapters. You’re book will probably have more. Simply add more questions and solutions for each chapter.

Here is a template you can download to use as a guide.

Live your passion,

Carol Owens   xxx

I’d love to hear how you used the template.  Comment below with your ideas on how it worked.

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