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Choosing nonfiction book topics
This is the most useful book on my shelf at this moment. I'm rereading it as I work my way through my first novel and it's a lifesaver.
Using Outlines in Writing Books
I wrote my first book under contract, based on the outline I had submitted to the publisher. When I sat down with that outline the first day, and realized I had promised three hundred pages I felt totally
overwhelmed. Three hundred pages! To a columnist used to writing a page or two at a time, that seemed overwhelming.
As I stared at my outline, I began to notice I had created many subheadings—those headings throughout chapters that help you find smaller segments of the chapter. While they help a reader locate specific information, they can also help the writer focus his writing. I often write three-or-four part articles on a specific subject. As I counted out the subheads, I realized that if each subhead was a multipart article, I would have three hundred pages when I was finished. I decided to stop thinking about the book and imagine myself writing a group of three-part articles.
I copied my outline into my manuscript. Then I pushed everything but the chapter name down to the next page, where I couldn't see it. I simply ignored that there were a hundred or so other topics waiting for me out of sight, and wrote on the topic at hand. When I reach the first subhead, I again shoved everything else out of sight, and went right on, as if it, too, were a standalone article.
This did require a bit of editing when I finished the book to make sure the topics flowed properly, but in general, I wrote more efficiently and effectively this way. It was less frightening.
Another benefit of using the outline was to prevent writer’s block. Often when I finish a section of writing, my mind simply shuts down and I don’t know what to do next. With the outline before me, I always knew what was next. I pulled up the next headline and continued on, without the usual panic of, “What’s next?”
I had never used an outline before. Often I discovered that midway into the book I’d wandered far afield. My mind operates in odd, random ways. One thought leads to another and the next thing I know, I'm writing a book on daisies instead of homeschooling. Then I’d panic, decide it would be too hard to go back and unravel the strange paths my manuscript was taking, and toss the book. Outlining forced me to stay on topic, and kept my random brain under control.
Not all authors choose to outline. Some prefer not to limit their thoughts or to be restricted. What I found, for myself, was that the outline actually freed me. I was free to focus on style, personality, and other aspects of the book because the structure was taken care of. I did change the outline here and there, as new ideas came to me, or in response to requests from editors, but in general, I followed the plan. While I am not as structured in my current attempt to write fiction, for a nonfiction book, I find outlining essential.