Module 1: Starting and Writing Your Book

Week 2: Designing the structure of your book

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LESSON SUMMARY

In week 1 of this module, we really honed in on the reasons why your book must be written. Hopefully by now you’re really excited to get going. But where do you start, when you’re looking at that big blank sheet of paper, or empty Word document?

What keeps many writers from getting started in writing their books is that they have loads of ideas, but no structure in which to present them coherently. Imagine if you had a well full of pure, cool drinking water, imbued with the magical power to enlighten people, and you wanted to share it with the world. You ladle it out into your hands, and rush madly into town to ask everyone to taste it. But by the time you get there, the water has spilled all over the road, and no one can understand what you are all excited about! They cannot drink from your wonderful water because you had no container from which they were able to drink. If only you had had a bucket, or a cup or some other kind of vessel in which to bring this elixir to them.

Not having a structure for your book is something like not having a bucket to share your wellspring of inspiration with the world. If you have no structure, people cannot drink from your wisdom, no matter how vital and important your message might be. This is not to say your structure has to be something rigid or formulaic. You can design your own structure (I did for my book), but you simply must have a structure of some kind in order for others to absorb your words.

And that’s what this week’s lesson is about. The purpose of this lesson is to give you the tools to design a structure for your book, so you can construct a detailed, written outline. This can not only help you get a new book started, but it can also help you get moving on book projects in which you might feel “stuck” or aimless. A good outline can also help keep you on track, and stay motivated in your writing project, as it helps you see exactly what you have completed, and what still needs to be done.

OBJECTIVES FOR THE WEEK

1. Learn the importance of having a structure
2. Learn the basic components of structure
3. Organise your raw materials into a structure
4. Construct a written outline for your book
5. Learn some basic guidelines for working with your outline

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