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How to Plan, Outline and Write Your Book (Without Feeling Overwhelmed)

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You Don't Have to Be Crushed by the Weight of Writing Your BookAt first all seems well.

You’re humming along writing your book.

You’re excited to ship your book out to the world.

But then doubts creep up.

You’re not sure if you’re on the right rack. You feel you’re almost randomly throwing words together.

Images of doom take residence in your mind.

You see yourself sitting on a street corner, begging for change, regretting ever trying to string a sentence together.

You don’t feel good enough.

You’re confused, frustrated, and ready to give up.

There’s a Better Way

It’s called planning.

Planning helps me avoid the madness of overwhelm.

I’ve tried writing books without planning, and I end up feeling like all I’ve done is vomit words on the page.

Planning may sound boring, but all it is is asking the right questions.

How I Plan, Outline, and Write My Books

At this point you may be imagining me sitting in front of my computer drinking a magical productivity elixir, but that is not the case.

My routine is ordinary, and dare I say, boring. But that’s what makes it work. Anyone can do this. Yes, that means you, too.

Here’s what I do:

1. Determine the Destination

Before I do anything, I ask myself: What is the purpose of this book? What is the end goal?

I brainstorm the problems I think I’m solving, and the people I’m helping.

I’m driving a bus, and when you buy one of my books, I’m asking you to hop on that bus with me.

Naturally, you’ll want to know where we’re going, and if there will be any goodies or pleasant surprises along the way.

The purpose of the book I’m working on right now (Do What You Love) is solving the confusion around doing what you love.

2. Draw the Map

Next, I ask myself questions like: What steps does someone need to take to achieve their goal?

If I can’t answer that, I’ll use a question I learned from the book 2k to 10k: What needs to happen before they reach the finish line?

In Do What You Love I haven’t mapped out a step-by-step path, instead I opted for a problem-focused approach, where each chapter solves a problem.

However, in How to Write Nonfiction eBooks, I take you step-by-step from not knowing what to write, to having your book done and out there.

In essence, I show you how to go from no book to a book you’re proud of.

I often use mind maps to get this process started.

Here’s an example of an early mind map (click the image to enlarge):

Do What You Love Early Mind Map

3. Find a Common Structure

Another handy thing I do is I try to find a common structure for each chapter.

For example, with my book on Writing Blog Posts Readers Love, the structure I started with for each chapter was:

  •  Introduction (story if possible)
  • What (define the concept)
  • Why (why learn this)
  • How (how to apply the information)
  • What if (objection)
  • Mistakes (blunders to avoid)
  • Example (from my life or a made up example)
  • Takeaway
  • Action steps

The structure may change from chapter to chapter, but I start with the structure above; it focuses my mind on what each chapter needs to contain.

4. Mind Map to Scrivener

At this point, I have the beginnings of my outline. It’s not done, but I have my ideas in a mind map, and I have a common structure in place.

Once I have all this, I transfer my mind map to Scrivener.

Before I used Scrivener, I wrote in MS Word, which I thought was adequate, but I had no idea what I was missing.

5. Write, Write, Write

With everything in Scrivener, I start writing.

My outline often changes as I write, which is to be expected.

The goal of my first draft is to dump everything I know onto digital paper.

The outline helps me stay focused, and it eliminates the worry of if I’m on the right track.

And here’s another handy tip.. .

Gathering Research

Once I get going, serendipity often rears its beautiful head. At least more often than not.

I might find an article, video, or a book that’s relevant to what I’m writing. When I consume it, I’ll get ideas, and I’ll get nudges of what I can put in my book.

For example, while writing Do What You Love, I felt drawn to certain books, such as:

These books serve as catalysts for my ideas. They remind me of what I already know.

Be careful though. You don’t want to be too affected by what you read. Share how you view the world. That is enough. That is what you’re here to do.

Avoid This at All Cost

Don’t make the method the ruler.

I’m loyal to no method. If mind mapping doesn’t work, I’ll try something else. Sometimes I’ll use looser outlines, and sometimes I won’t.

Use what works for you. And remember, what works today may not work tomorrow, so stay nimble.

The Wrap

Taking time to plan and outline my books saves me from getting stuck, and feeling overwhelmed, down the road.

You can outline as loosely, or as strictly, as you want.

There are no rules.

What matters is that you write.

All the coolest,
Henri

P.S. My book, How to Write Nonfiction eBooks: A Proven 17-Step Guide, is quite handy if you want a step-by-step plan for writing your book without drowning in overwhelm. It’s a nice blend of inspiration + how-to.

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Comments

  2. Hey Henri,

    You may have covered this elsewhere (perhaps in one of your ebooks!), but, at a basic level, how do you determine your pricing for each book?

    Mallie

    • I do touch on pricing in my How to Write Nonfiction eBooks book. But it depends on what you’re selling. The best short answer I can give is to look at what similar books are selling for.

      For example, on Amazon, the lowest price you can set and still get a 70% royalty is $2.99. And that’s what you see many authors use. It strikes a good balance between reach and profitability.

  3. Hi Henri!

    I’m writing my first book and found your article very helpful! My challenge is that I want this book to be life changing for someone so my perfectionist gremlin keeps rearing its head. Lol! Best of luck with your next book and thank you for the article!

    Ayesha

    • I know that perfectionism trap all too well. You have to remember that you can only do your best right now. Share what you know honestly and let go of the results. It makes the writing more enjoyable 😉

  5. Henri,
    thanks for this! I am in the process of writing two books and this post came in at the right time. Of course I want to stick to the one and finish it before I move on but your tips certainly help me in structuring my books to help get around being stuck. Thanks again!

  6. Henri, I like mindmapping. On paper or with Freemind, I use it for just about everything. I learned a variation of mindmapping in college (1984) and it’s one of my favorite tools.

    However, my level of planning for a book project depends on the nature of the project. Nonfiction, more. Fiction, less. Often I can fly with just knowing where I’m gonna end up and filling in the blanks on the way.

    Might mention, there’s such a thing as overplanning. I fell victim to that many times. Planning and preparation are great, but not when they become a handy substitute for actually doing the work.

    • Couldn’t agree more, Eric. We have to be careful about the extremes; both overplanning and underplanning. Whatever keeps you from sitting down and doing the work needs to be shipped off to another world.

  7. Hi Henri, I have been struggling to write a story which I composed from studying my father’s small poultry farm. Although it is five years now, I still have not got anywhere.

    Your article is proving helpful but still stucked as I took the work too handy. Are there any ways I can adopt to boost my morale to write the novel? Any further things to consider while writing my book?
    Thanks

    • Whenever I get stuck, I find I’m putting too much pressure on myself. What helps is letting myself write as badly as possible. Writing is supposed to be fun. If it isn’t, something needs adjusting 😉

  8. Hey Henri,
    interesting post! I’ve used a similar system when I was writing my first eBook.

    I started out by creating a mindmap, structuring it in a very general outline and then wrote, wrote and wrote. I used iA Writer on iPad, combined with a bluetooth keyboard, because I wanted to avoid distractions and just focus on writing.

    Now I’ve switched to Writer Pro by iA, because it supports different modes of writing (note, write, edit, read), each of which comes with different fonts that support it. So far it works awesome for me.

    The biggest challenge was to hold to the concept that I laid out. When I was writing, suddenly new ideas popped into my mind and changed the structure of the chapter from time to time. How do you deal with those situations?

    Best,
    Jan

    • That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? You have to decide between adding it in, or removing it. I only know after a fair amount of rewriting and letting my book rest (not working on it for days, often weeks).

      What helps me is to constantly ask: Does this help? Is this in line with the purpose of this book and this chapter?

  9. Hey Henri,
    I am actually looking to write a book and this is some useful stuff here. Your site is actually one of my favorites because of how real you are. There is so much bullshit personal growth type stuff online, but you’re the real deal.
    Keep it up, dude!