You can use freewriting as a warmup writing session - with no relation to your story idea at all - or as a way to push past that slump of not knowing where to start writing your manuscript. It helps open your brain up to the idea that you can write down anything you want and helps you get into that first-draft headspace: write first, think later. Five-minute sprints Organize your book’s main points, and add in any specific details that you will have to touch on in each point. Your book is polished, published, and hopefully pulling in readers already! But that doesn’t mean your work is done — far from it.

But even if it’s a straightforward how-to book, stay as close to this structure as possible, and you’ll see your manuscript come alive. Wait a week or more before you edit. This will give you the fresh eyes you need to consider your writing the way an editor would. Do more blog tours and connect with authors. Guest-posting to promote your book isn’t just for your launch plan! Even after you’ve launched, continue reaching out to relevant blogs, especially those written by other authors who might want to cross-promote. Over the past decade, a number of companies have entered the market with software for writers. A few of them specifically help authors with outlining novels. Add characters. Now that you have a plot, it’s time to include your characters. This is important because it helps you identify any supplemental characters you hadn’t yet thought of. It also helps you chart out your protagonist’s purpose and hero's journey.

Maybe you’d rather schedule four off weeks over the next year. Or you know your book will be unusually long. The protagonist. This is who the story is about, so they usually need to be the very first person we meet, and it needs to be obvious that we’re going to be following them through the tale. Claire Malcolm is the founding Chief Executive of the writer development charity New Writing North . Here, she answers some questions commonly asked by new writers.

For a non-fiction book I’m looking for media hooks – is there a special date this book would launch on or is it a particularly timely idea? Has the author had exclusive access, or do they show special expertise and/or originality? And don’t worry if you’ve forgotten the basics of classic outlining or have never felt comfortable with the concept. Make sure it’s not your family—they should always be your top priority. Never sacrifice your family on the altar of your writing career.The outline is 95 percent of the book. Then I sit down and write, and that's the easy part.” Jeffery Deaver A marketing and publicity campaign is essentially all about telling people about a brilliant book. So, a campaign begins with the book – but does not end there. The book is merely the jumping-off point for us to work out all the ways we can bring it to the right attention in the right way. Whichever scene you find the most interesting or compelling or complete in your mind: write that one first. The rest of your story, especially the beginning, will be easier to commit to paper if you already have some idea of what the story will look like through other scenes. Freewriting Establish writing goals. Professional writers develop writing habits that keep them productive. These goals could include daily word count targets, our hours of time invested writing. You may not be able to write full-time, but can you write for an hour? Or commit to 500 words a day? (That would be 182,500 words over the course of a year, which is multiple books worth of content!)

Attend a party held by a publisher. Authors, agents and all manner of people from the industry will be invited to attend. This is an opportunity to catch up with familiar faces, meet new people or even fangirl over a dream author, but they can also be tiring and take up your precious free time – they are also not obligatory. That’s immediately not what we’re expecting to hear from our protagonist. How are they talking to us if they’re dead? Why is “dead” capitalized? What does he mean he “learned to live with it?” We’re primed and ready to go for a zombie story that isn’t typical at all. Set up the plan. Your characters have their quest, so how are they going to achieve their goals? Have your characters sit down and plan it out, then head out on their mission. Simple, right? What could possibly go wrong? That’s what your audience will keep reading to find out. Firstly, my passion. There is no better feeling than reading a submission and falling in love with it, and knowing how you will be able to publish it successfully. I try to spend a bit of time in each presentation describing and explaining not only why I care so much about the project, but why I think everyone will. Following this is the question of why I think the project I am raising is worth us pursuing, taking into consideration its subject and approach, the author’s profile and publishing history, and where it sits in the market and what gap it might fill (including a mention of any suitable comparable titles).

You wouldn’t set out to cut down a huge grove of trees with just an axe. You’d need a chain saw, perhaps more than one. Something to keep them sharp. Enough fuel to keep them running. Not you-first, not book-first, not editor-, agent-, or publisher-first. Certainly not your inner circle- or critics-first. Always be prepared for opportunities. You never know when you’ll have the chance to promote your book in a life-changing way! If you were to run into Reese Witherspoon tomorrow, you should have a preview of your book ready to AirDrop onto her phone. Final thoughts The biggest benefit of learning how to write a book outline is that your outline can help you start, and finish your book. It’s hard to love a story when you have no idea who it’s about. Even if the literal identities of your characters are a secret that you plan to surprise us with later, we need to know generally who we’re rooting for and against as early as possible. In the beginning of your book, you’ll want to show us:

Leave blanks & skip over. If you can't hash out a particular detail, or have a gap in your outline, don't pressure yourself to fill the gap. Instead, skip it and leave it blank. It will come to you as you start writing! Phone call with an author, for a general catch-up, to talk about their work or to talk through something they are worried about. It’s my job either to reassure them what they are concerned about is normal, or to take action if it’s not. Likewise, I might call an editor to discuss a cover design that is not quite right, ask for sales figures for a book that’s been published, or look at publicity and marketing plans for a book that will be published soon. Write your idea out. What’s your book’s big picture? This is the premise of your story; it’s the “big idea.” Try to write your idea into as few sentences as possible, preferably one. You’ll have a chance to get into the granular details later.Leave them wanting more. End on a question, a hint at a twist, or even an outright cliffhanger. Make it impossible for readers not to preview your book (if only because they’re skeptical that you can pull it off). The thing about agenting is that every day is different. But a lot of our job takes place outside office hours and might include the following on any given evening ...