- After publishing over 40 different nonfiction books
underneath my own brand name over the past five years,
I feel I have a got a pretty strong grasp
on outlining nonfiction books.
In fact, I'm gonna share with you today
on how to outline a nonfiction book
and it's a dead simple process.
It's gonna blow you away so make sure you stay tuned.
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Stick around to the end because I'm gonna equip
you with an amazing resource that's going to get
you off and started with your nonfiction book.
So I've written scores of nonfiction books underneath
my own name alone.
As well as, numerous other pennames.
So sure, I've discussed already have done over 40 titles,
but believe it or not,
I've done scores more underneath pennames.
I have a very good grasp on writing nonfiction books.
That's my wheelhouse if you will.
So I wanted to share a little bit about how to outline
your nonfiction book.
And it really, it's easier than you think.
I'd recommend you start out with three pre-gaming tips.
Pre-game tip number one, identify your reader.
Before you start writing a single word or even outlining
it all, you need to understand who are you writing for
and it should not be for everyone.
Make no mistake about it, if you try to write
for everyone, no one is going to read your book.
So get good on who it is you're writing your book for,
that way it makes the process so much easier
as you're outlining.
Pre-game tip number two, research key words and niches.
I know it seems kinda goofy that we're gonna go look
at keywords and niches ahead of time.
But it's also gonna cement down, who our ideal reader
is and how they're going to be looking for our content.
I might say something one particular way.
So as a for instance, when I talk about workouts
here in the United States,
it's known as bodybuilding elsewhere.
Funny thing is if you say bodybuilding in the U.S.,
you think about the large muscled up, muscle bound guys
that are huge weightlifters.
There's a huge difference when it comes to the U.S.,
well, this just further illustrates that you gotta
understand what your reader is particularly searching
for in your nonfiction book.
Pre-game tip number three, select a tentative title.
Now this one is not a must, but I think sometimes
it helps to understand what you are really shooting for
and any time I've had my title set out,
I know exactly what's gonna go underneath that title
and more importantly, what doesn't go underneath it.
So it's gonna make the outlining much easier.
So use these three tips to your advantage.
If you don't have these three tips set in advance,
it's okay, but it certainly increases the likelihood
that you're gonna be able to crank out
an outline in no time.
The brain dump, spend 30 minutes with a pad and a pen
and you're just going to write everything out that is
relevant or slightly relevant
to your particularly nonfiction topic.
Nothing's off the table.
I mean if it just crosses my mind, I'm gonna write it down.
Do not allow your editor to come in.
So if you misspell something or if you think,
ah, this doesn't have anything to do with it, it's okay.
Don't worry about it.
We're gonna suss out all those details a little bit later.
I just recommend keep writing.
You're gonna spend 30 minutes
and I want you to put a timer down.
And if you start running dry on ideas,
you're probably letting that inner editor come out.
Just let it flow, let it go.
Keep writing, keep writing, keep writing.
Organize.
You're gonna take all these brain dumped concepts
and I want you to organize them
in a logical and sensible order.
Don't stress on this particular area because once
you're done with your first draft
and you go into your first round of edits,
you can probably start to reorganize things
and rewrite them a bit later.
Right now, we're just trying to get a sensible solution,
so we can kinda push forward.
Ask questions relevant to the topic or ideas.
Assuming, you're a bit of an authority in your particular
niche, I would just say think about common questions
people ask you when it comes to your area of expertise.
So I for instance get a lot of questions when it comes
to fitness, where people say,
well, what's the best absolutely workout
or how's the best way I can lose weight?
You're gonna think about those common questions
people will ask you.
If you're finding you're dry on ideas
and you're kinda going, I don't know what questions
I get asked or I don't know what they do ask.
Google is your friend.
This is a crazy suggestion, I know.
But the thing is a lot of people go to Google
to figure out answers to their questions.
So what I'll do is I'll start to type out any type
of relevant question to my particular topic.
And I'll let autosuggest start to populate.
Don't press Enter.
Just fill it up and see exactly what are all the questions
related to your topic.
When you feel confident that something is pretty close
to it, select it and then it will pull up the search page.
And just browse the first 16 selections
and websites and there might be some questions on them
or maybe even some titles.
It might grease your creative wheels.
Further more, scroll further down and you're gonna see
related searches.
So this is another area of opportunity where you're
gonna discover other questions that you didn't
otherwise think about.
Organize the questions.
I know we spend a lot of time organizing
when it comes to outlining, but it's going to make
the process of writing your first draft so much easier
if you put everything once again, in a sensible order.
Figure out what just flows best, what's going to make
it easiest for you to get from point A down to point B
with little work in between.
Once of my favorite ways to do the organization
of questions is taking a particular question
that might tie in closely to another question
and I get to where it ties in one after another
if I can help it.
That way we can really break things up.
Remove extraneous ideas.
Okay, so now you've gotta go through and pair out
anything that is maybe questionable.
You probably have a particular topic
and you're kinda going, I don't know if my readers
are gonna like this or this has become such a two-headed
beast and a monster of sorts.
That you're kinda going, I could write a book
in and of itself with this one.
You can probably just copy, paste that on over
to another document and save it for later
or even focus on that one in specific.
The idea is you take each one of the brain dumped
concepts with their questions and those are gonna
represent an individual chapter inside your book.
Again, don't get too hung up on this process
if it makes sense to go within your book.
Don't question yourself, just go with your gut.
You're gonna ultimately know what needs to be
put into your book and what can probably be put off
for another project some other day.
I found often times that when I'm writing an outline
for a book, I will end up outlining two or three books.
So I will take some of those concepts
and just put it on the back burner.
This is one of the ways that I was able
to just be so prolific with my writing was
I really started jotting out an idea for one particular
book and then I discover there's three or four books
underneath that outline.
Fire away.
That simple.
Really, you got your outline all put out.
This doesn't need to be sexy, doesn't need to be perfect.
You don't need to have it textbook to where
it's the way you learned in school
or through a college course.
Whatever works for you is what works best.
And at this point, all I typically do is I'll take those
questions and I will start to answer those
and make it to where you're going in full paragraphs
and answering those and I just maybe use some
of those questions as subchapters.
And every now and then maybe a question will come up
that you didn't otherwise think about that's related
to another one and you can create another sub-subchapter.
But hey, all the work is not done just yet.
You know you've got the outline all set ready to go
and you're about ready to write it.
But what are the next best steps?
Well, I can assure you, I've got you all set.
I will remove any ambiguity that you have in the publishing
and writing process.
When you join me over the DIY publishing course monthly
I've actually got a link to that.
Right on (dings) over there.
And you're gonna take a look at that visit it
and see the options that are available to you.
Hey, I will see you over there.