TOP 10 Reasons Why an Outline is Important When Writing a Book

NOTE: This article is an abridged extract from Spirit Authors Module 1 Week 2. You can Test Drive Module 1, or any of the other 5 Spirit Authors courses on writing, book promotion, publishing, and business-building, for only $1 for 14 days at http://spiritauthors.com.

If you are in the middle of a book project and you keep getting stuck, or it seems to take on a life of its own and go “all over the place”, it’s probably because you have no outline OR you did at one time and you have since abandoned it. Because I have seen that so many new authors writing their first book do not make an outline before beginning their project, I thought I’d share with you the TOP 10 Reasons why defining a structure and creating an outline for your book is so important:

1. It makes writing easier. When you go to sit down to work, you know exactly what parts of your book need to get done. And remember, just because you have an ordered outline, you are NOT committed to writing it in order. You can start anywhere.
2. It makes reading easier. Books that have a structure are easier for readers to comprehend.
3. It makes your message memorable. Readers can remember your message when there is a structure attached to it. It makes abstract concepts more memorable, and enables readers to feel they have gained something they can take away from the book, after they have finished it.
4. It helps ensure you are thorough. If you have an outline, you won’t accidentally omit something vital to your message or storyline.
5. It helps limit continuity errors. While thoroughness refers to ensuring that all important thoughts and details are included in your text, continuity refers to ensuring your thoughts and events following a logical sequence. An outline can help you see the continuity of your book before writing it.
6. It helps ensure your book has symmetry. Symmetry means that all the assembled parts of your book have a “shape” when pieced all together.
7. It helps ensure your book has balance. A good outline can help you see if some parts of your book are less substantial than others. A well-balanced book is organised in such a way that the ideas are balanced both in quantity and in quality against each other.
8. It helps keep you focussed. When you have an outline (and stick to it) you won’t be as tempted to go off on a tangent. This doesn’t mean you will NEVER deviate or come up with great new ideas. But if the outline is there, you can see how these new ideas fit into your original intention.
9. It helps to motivate you. When you have an outline, you see yourself making progress and ticking off the “boxes”, so to speak. This helps keep you motivated as you move closer and closer to your goal of finishing your book.
10. It helps you develop a regular writing practice. If you have an outline to depend upon, you are far more likely to sit down at your desk (or wherever you happen to write) and START WRITING rather than waiting for the “muse” to shoot arrows at you.

And, incidentally, did you notice I just used STRUCTURE to create an OUTLINE for how I presented these ideas, by saying “Here are the TOP 10 REASONS”?  When I decided to write this post, I FIRST decided I would find 10 top reasons, and then I started writing. I had never organised them in such a way before, but the outline “made” to article write itself. Isn’t it a lot easier to remember them than if I simply talked about the topic without a structure?

This article is an abridged extract from Spirit Authors Module 1 Week 2.

In that lesson, you learn how to define a structure and create an outline for your book. You can Test Drive Module 1, or any of the other 5 Spirit Authors courses on writing, book promotion, publishing, and business-building, for only $1 for 14 days at http://spiritauthors.com.