Writing Craft Book Reviews: How to Outline a Novel in Three Hours or Less
National Novel Writing Month is coming up in November, so this is “Preptober,” when authors plan out the novels that they are going to start next month.
A lot of authors create outlines before NaNoWriMo starts, so they can devote the entire month to writing and are more likely to succeed. There are a lot of books out there on how to outline a novel or story; it seems like every writer has their own way of doing things.
Books are expensive, and I can’t afford to buy every book about how to outline when most of them will not be what I’m looking for. Instead, I’ve been focusing on craft books that are available on Kindle Unlimited.
Do you read more than one paperback or two ebooks per month?
If you do, check out Kindle Unlimited.
I am a huge fan, because I read several novels and a couple of nonfiction books per week.
With KU, you can check out as many ebooks as you want for a monthly fee. It’s like a library with over a million books in it, both ebooks and some audiobooks, and it’s all yours. Well, ten books at a time are yours. Then, like a library, you have to return a book before you can check out another one.
On my Kindle Ereader, I can browse through the Kindle store and pick out paranormal romances, murder mysteries, science fiction action stories, or epic fantasy adventures—basically any genre I’m in the mood for. There are even graphic novels!
I like to look for books with Amazon on my computer; there’s a button that lets me sort by only KU books. My favorite feature though is the next-in-series feature. When I finish a book, the next book in the series pops up and I can download it to my device with one click!
If you don’t have Kindle Unlimited yet, you can sign up for a free trial at this link. I warn you though, it’s addictive!
How to Outline a Novel: in three hours or less
I didn’t have high hopes for How to Outline a Novel: in three hours or less by Claire Thatcher—after all, there is only one review on amazon and it is three stars.
It took just fifteen to twenty minutes to read; I think my Kindle app said there were only twenty-three pages. It’s more of a long blog post than an actual book.
Like in a good blog post though, the author, Claire Thatcher, presented useful information in a straight-forward way, without a lot of useless fluff to wade through.
Just a long blog post...but a good one!
Thatcher uses a who-what-when-where-why-how system to outline her novels.
When she has compiled this information, she puts it together into an outline. Most of what’s in her book is basic, but there were two exercises that I thought were interesting.
First, the author used a series of “what if” questions to brainstorm plot points. The exercise worked out to something like:
- What if [this interesting thing] happens?
- Assuming that [this interesting thing] happens, what if {another interesting thing} results?
- What if {another interesting thing} happened because of (backstory)?
- What if (backstory) makes the characters interact in <this shocking way>?
What I really liked about the way Thatcher set up the exercise is that, when done right, all of the elements are intertwined.
Look at the words in the example: results, because of, makes something happen. When the plot is built this way, each event organically rises out of a previous event—it’s cause and effect. That means the plot will be a cohesive whole that is satisfying to a reader.
The second bit of advice that interested me was when Thatcher suggested using a chart to map out the plot points in the story.
A visual representation of the story arc might help a writer see where the tension is rising and where the climax of the story is. She has an example of a blank chart at the beginning of “Step Two: The Big Picture.”
Her example chart only has a single straight line showing the rising action, though. I think it would be even more useful if each time the stakes rose was indicated with a jog in that straight line. That way a writer could see the relationship between the sharp spikes of raised stakes and the overall increase in tension.
The last step that the author takes is to write in the details of each chapter.
According to the author, her last project was around 6,000 words to outline ten chapters, which doesn’t seem excessive to me. Thatcher said that after writing her outline, the words “flowed. It was easy, I didn’t get lost, my ending was clean and tied everything together.”
I wish my writing came out that well!
I'll give it 4 out of 5 stars.
How to Outline a Novel: in three hours or less is a short, interesting book, and it’s free on Kindle Unlimited.
I didn’t get a lot out of it, but I didn’t invest much into it either. I can’t really see a reason NOT to read it. If the other book in the “How to Write a Novel” series is also free and short, I’ll probably check it out, too.
If you decide to take a look at this book, let me know in the comments! I’d love to here what you think.
Hi, I'm Tamara
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