Secrets to Outlining a Novel

How do you outline a novel without losing your creativity? Let structure set you free.

Everyone reading this has a dream. You want to write a novel. Scratch that. You want to write a novel readers love. An outline gets you there faster, and it doesn't box you in. You're the artist. You decide.

Secrets to Outlining a Novel: Banish Writer's Block and Build a Bestseller Outline is a step-by-step guide to plotting and outlining a novel in any genre. Plotters love it. Discovery writers can use it too, and jump off the outlining train whenever they're ready to write.

You'll learn:

• How to write a skeleton blurb, the most powerful part of your outline, in less than ten minutes
• How to build a skeleton synopsis from the five story arc scenes that form your story's spine
• The secret order to outline those scenes, so each one mirrors another
• What Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3 must do to keep readers turning pages
• How to outline a scene using six story elements you can't live without
• How to outline subplots, dual narratives, and other nonlinear structures

You'll create:

• Your skeleton blurb and skeleton synopsis
• A full, 26-scene story outline
• Scene outlines for your most important scenes

By the time you finish each chapter, another part of your outline is done. By the end of the book, your whole outline is done.

"Don't write your next novel without these insights, hints, and tips." -Mary Buckham, USA Today bestselling author of Break Into Fiction

Like every book in the Write Novels That Sell series, we give you the theory-the why behind our recommendations-and actionable advice you can use right away.

Say goodbye to the dreaded blank page. Outline a story that's spectacularly your own and structurally sound.