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It Down > Creating Your Chapter Outline
Keywords: book writing, writer, writing, book ideas, book writing
Your chapter outline should be one of the first things that emerge
from you as you start writing. It will carry you
through your entire book writing process, and,
indeed, serve as your writing outline.
Your writing should come not only from your head
but also from your heart and soul. That is why, in the article on
how to get started, we tell you
to write and write and just write, to follow your schedule and write
daily. This allows your original book ideas
to flow from you onto the page.
After a certain period of time, and it varies for everyone, something
will change. You will find that your book writing
has stopped. This is not writer's block.
There are writing days and editing days. Now it is time to go get
yourself a cup of tea, coffee, or a glass of water or juice, print off what
you have written if it is on the computer, and go sit in a different
chair in a different room. Sit outside if weather permits or take
your writing to a coffee shop that has comfy chairs
and perhaps even a fireplace if it is wintertime.
Now read your writing as if you were someone else. But read in
a certain way. You are not looking at quality of writing, at grammar
or at spelling. You are looking for ideas.
When I was little, my grandmother had a large jar full of assorted
leftover buttons. Sometimes to amuse us, she would dump the jar
on the carpet and we would spend hours sorting and playing with
the buttons. Perhaps that is when the young researcher in me was
born.
What you are doing now with your writing is a
button-sorting job, so leave your critical hat in the drawer. As
you start reading, put a large letter “A” in the margin
beside the first idea. As you read on and notice that the idea has
changed, insert the letter “B” into the margin. Soon
you will read another idea and place a “C” in the margin.
Then perhaps you will read something that sounds like idea “A”
again, so put an “A” in the margin as before.
When you are done reading your draft book writing,
look back and review the letters. On a separate sheet of paper,
or in a new file, list the letters you have used. Then beside each
one, write a few words that capture the main idea of sections that
carry that letter. What was it about each section of that same letter
that made you put that letter there? Do not worry about a perfect
choice of words to put beside these letters. That will come later.
Now you just want to capture your main ideas.
Now look at your list. This is your chapter
outline. The order may change and many more chapters may emerge,
but you have a start. Fantastic!
Now get yourself a large piece of poster board and some post-it
notes from your office supply store, and write each chapter heading
on a separate note across the top of the page and watch what happens.
You will be grabbing at other notes to write on and put under each
heading.
Carry this package of post-it notes with you wherever you go because,
believe me, your book ideas will be flowing so
quickly now that you will not be able to stop them.
You may prefer to create a spreadsheet on your computer, either
now or as time goes by. I also recommend that, for now, you open
a separate file for each chapter. You can do this either on the
computer or on paper. If you are working on paper, get one of those
small hanging file stands, create a file for each chapter of your
book writing and keep that handy. Each day you will be coming up
with new ideas for the different chapters. If you are working on
the computer or using an audio device, you can type or transfer
the information right into the appropriate chapter file, and if
you have jotted the ideas down on paper, you can just pop them to the
appropriate file folder for recording later.
You have your chapter outline. You are gathering ideas for each
chapter and you are, indeed, writing a book.
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