What do you think?
Rate this book
Fiction Writing Basics #2
Nine Day Novel-Outlining: Outlining Your Fiction Novel: Plotting Your Way to Success
Outlining your novel doesn't have to be hard. But when was the last time you sat down to write with the confidence and true belief that you knew exactly what story you were going to tell?
Where do you start your first novel? If you're like I was, you started writing with no idea where your story was headed. Believe me, two books and almost 500,000 words into that "process" I had to stop and re-evaluate my strategy. Now, before I commit the time and energy to pen a 90,000 word novel, I make a map.
I wrote these Nine Day Novel books after I realized how difficult it was for new fiction authors to plot, write, edit and publish their first novel.
This book is a roadmap to get you beyond the theory and into the practicality of putting words on the page in the right order.
Being a commited newbie author isn't easy Some scoffed at me when I said you can write a novel in nine days. Then I sat down and did it ... 4 times.
Now, literally thousands have read my book on writing, describing how to carve out time and write faster by using story structure, and the second book, on how to streamline the fiction editing process with Scrivener.
But I made a mistake with those first two books! Plenty of you emailed me and told me as much. "Steve, shouldn't you have started with outlining? How am I supposed to write 90,000 words of a story when I have no clue where it's headed?"
Though I detailed the Four Part Story Structure inside NDN: Writing, the point was taken-outlining and plotting your novel is a difficult task that deserves a more in-depth discussion.
In Nine Day Novel: Outlining I'll detail: - Why you should outline your novel
- How to generate ideas and inspiration for your novel
- Whether you should weave your own story into your first novel
- How to turn your ideas into high concept stories
- The top ten novel themes and popular variations of them
- How to keep track of settings, vocabulary and characters
- How and why you should create multiple summaries for your novel
Don't write another book by the seat of your pants. I'll show you a step-by-step, milestone-oriented way to ensure that your hero has a worthy journey before you write the opening line of your novel.
I promise you that if you follow the outlining tips, examples and structure in this book, your next novel will get planned and plotted better than it would have otherwise. You'll feel more confident in your story before you start and experience less "writer's block" trying to figure out where to take your hero next.
And as always I'll do all of that inside my favorite storytelling structure, the Four Part Story Structure. And, since it's hard for me to imagine writing more efficiently without it, I'll introduce you to my favorite writing software, Scrivener!
"The bonuses (for the series) are more than worth the price of the books!" Bonus writing tools like:
- Four Part Story Structure starter file as a fill-in-the-blanks Scrivener file.
- Editing videos detailing how I self-edit before working with editors right inside Scrivener.
- And for this book, a beat-by-beat example outline for Dixxon-Teen Witch, a novella that I'm co-authoring with a newbie fiction writer, outlining it beforehand using this very book. (Also as a Scrivener starter file.)
But the real world, real writing advice in these books has helped hundreds re-energize their writing and rekindle their love for storytelling by giving them the tools to write with confidence. All you have to do to get those same results is to read this book.
If you're struggling to outline your novel, scroll up and click "BUY NOW!"
Where do you start your first novel? If you're like I was, you started writing with no idea where your story was headed. Believe me, two books and almost 500,000 words into that "process" I had to stop and re-evaluate my strategy. Now, before I commit the time and energy to pen a 90,000 word novel, I make a map.
I wrote these Nine Day Novel books after I realized how difficult it was for new fiction authors to plot, write, edit and publish their first novel.
This book is a roadmap to get you beyond the theory and into the practicality of putting words on the page in the right order.
Being a commited newbie author isn't easy Some scoffed at me when I said you can write a novel in nine days. Then I sat down and did it ... 4 times.
Now, literally thousands have read my book on writing, describing how to carve out time and write faster by using story structure, and the second book, on how to streamline the fiction editing process with Scrivener.
But I made a mistake with those first two books! Plenty of you emailed me and told me as much. "Steve, shouldn't you have started with outlining? How am I supposed to write 90,000 words of a story when I have no clue where it's headed?"
Though I detailed the Four Part Story Structure inside NDN: Writing, the point was taken-outlining and plotting your novel is a difficult task that deserves a more in-depth discussion.
In Nine Day Novel: Outlining I'll detail: - Why you should outline your novel
- How to generate ideas and inspiration for your novel
- Whether you should weave your own story into your first novel
- How to turn your ideas into high concept stories
- The top ten novel themes and popular variations of them
- How to keep track of settings, vocabulary and characters
- How and why you should create multiple summaries for your novel
Don't write another book by the seat of your pants. I'll show you a step-by-step, milestone-oriented way to ensure that your hero has a worthy journey before you write the opening line of your novel.
I promise you that if you follow the outlining tips, examples and structure in this book, your next novel will get planned and plotted better than it would have otherwise. You'll feel more confident in your story before you start and experience less "writer's block" trying to figure out where to take your hero next.
And as always I'll do all of that inside my favorite storytelling structure, the Four Part Story Structure. And, since it's hard for me to imagine writing more efficiently without it, I'll introduce you to my favorite writing software, Scrivener!
"The bonuses (for the series) are more than worth the price of the books!" Bonus writing tools like:
- Four Part Story Structure starter file as a fill-in-the-blanks Scrivener file.
- Editing videos detailing how I self-edit before working with editors right inside Scrivener.
- And for this book, a beat-by-beat example outline for Dixxon-Teen Witch, a novella that I'm co-authoring with a newbie fiction writer, outlining it beforehand using this very book. (Also as a Scrivener starter file.)
But the real world, real writing advice in these books has helped hundreds re-energize their writing and rekindle their love for storytelling by giving them the tools to write with confidence. All you have to do to get those same results is to read this book.
If you're struggling to outline your novel, scroll up and click "BUY NOW!"
- GenresWritingNonfiction
190 pages, Paperback
First published April 14, 2015
59 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Steve Windsor
13 books36 followersSteve Windsor was born in Augsberg Germany to US Military parents. So he doesn’t know a bit of German.
University of Washington—check—alumni association after me for money.
MBA—almost—too much beer.
Mortgage—check—check—check—no mas, por favor, no mas.
Wife—she’s wonderful
Kids—wonder-fuller
La la la. You don’t want to read about that do you? Here’s the good stuff
Me? I'm just a guy who wants to watch the Apocalypse with some 3D glasses, a monster bucket of popcorn, and a Pina Colada. (Hey, don't judge me. I like the foo-foo drinks. They taste better.)
I like a good bad-guy … or bad good-girl, for that matter. What's wrong with that?
I think the world needs some good anti-heroes. Ones that we can rely on to set things right. An ornery brute or brutess who can clean up everything that needs cleanin' up ... except themselves.
And I would use an ellipsis ... for a dramatic pause ... and another one ... just to piss off my editor ... right before I tell you that sometimes … I mess up movie quotes.
My editor says that ellipses are annoying—I don't use many of them. (Totally lying—she made me put that in here)
I think Vin Diesel was too nice in Pitch Black. (Probably his best movie) So was Beatrix Kiddo in Kill Bill, for that matter. (1 and 2, thank you)
Andrew Vachss is my hero. You should definitely read his novels.
And I love George R.R. Martin because he’s not afraid to whack a hero.
You think I'm harsh? Two words—Chuck Wendig. Trust me, you should read him.
Sarcasm—Flirty chit-chat.
Cynicism—A little toe tickle under the dinner table.
Condescending contempt—ooh, talk dirty to me.
Straight-up stringing a long line of colorful profanity together as speech—Check please! Call us a cab!
On Profanity:
Battlestar Galactica (the new one) I mean, come on, “Frack?” That was profanity genius.
Betty White—Lake Placid. All I'm sayin'.
X-files—episode… I don’t remember, but they “bleeped” all their cursewords … by actually saying “bleep!” Genius!
Also, HBO—The Wire. Where my two favorite detectives carry a whole scene with one word as continual dialog. That word? "Firetruck." (It's a SNL skit—Google it)
And Firefly? Get outta here. Cussing in Chinese? Frackin genius.
So I guess you can tell I like a colorful vocabulary in a character.
I'm Steve Windsor, and I approve this bio message
University of Washington—check—alumni association after me for money.
MBA—almost—too much beer.
Mortgage—check—check—check—no mas, por favor, no mas.
Wife—she’s wonderful
Kids—wonder-fuller
La la la. You don’t want to read about that do you? Here’s the good stuff
Me? I'm just a guy who wants to watch the Apocalypse with some 3D glasses, a monster bucket of popcorn, and a Pina Colada. (Hey, don't judge me. I like the foo-foo drinks. They taste better.)
I like a good bad-guy … or bad good-girl, for that matter. What's wrong with that?
I think the world needs some good anti-heroes. Ones that we can rely on to set things right. An ornery brute or brutess who can clean up everything that needs cleanin' up ... except themselves.
And I would use an ellipsis ... for a dramatic pause ... and another one ... just to piss off my editor ... right before I tell you that sometimes … I mess up movie quotes.
My editor says that ellipses are annoying—I don't use many of them. (Totally lying—she made me put that in here)
I think Vin Diesel was too nice in Pitch Black. (Probably his best movie) So was Beatrix Kiddo in Kill Bill, for that matter. (1 and 2, thank you)
Andrew Vachss is my hero. You should definitely read his novels.
And I love George R.R. Martin because he’s not afraid to whack a hero.
You think I'm harsh? Two words—Chuck Wendig. Trust me, you should read him.
Sarcasm—Flirty chit-chat.
Cynicism—A little toe tickle under the dinner table.
Condescending contempt—ooh, talk dirty to me.
Straight-up stringing a long line of colorful profanity together as speech—Check please! Call us a cab!
On Profanity:
Battlestar Galactica (the new one) I mean, come on, “Frack?” That was profanity genius.
Betty White—Lake Placid. All I'm sayin'.
X-files—episode… I don’t remember, but they “bleeped” all their cursewords … by actually saying “bleep!” Genius!
Also, HBO—The Wire. Where my two favorite detectives carry a whole scene with one word as continual dialog. That word? "Firetruck." (It's a SNL skit—Google it)
And Firefly? Get outta here. Cussing in Chinese? Frackin genius.
So I guess you can tell I like a colorful vocabulary in a character.
I'm Steve Windsor, and I approve this bio message
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 26, 2015
great book for teaching important reasons for outlining a novel or any project. This provides a road map and helps spot areas that need work.
January 3, 2019
* This is a pretty negative review- the book left a sour taste in my mouth. If you don't want to be turned off to this book- stop reading right now. For some this will be an informative and helpful outlining primer.
Initially it was helpful but then a we got deeper into it- problems arose for me and I became disinterested and then downright hostile to the whole thing. It became problematic for me when author developed a fictitious idea to illustrate his points. I initially thought this would be helpful but the idea/concept/story line of his fictitious book was not appealing or interesting to me. It was not the sort of story I EVER would read- much less write about.
Call me silly or petty but I began skimming it and then ignoring it. The idea was not one I could follow along with and it totally turned me off. Since his examples were a major part of the learning process... well it wasn't that useful for me and I didn't benefit much or at all from reading this book. If you don't read his example there isn't much meat on the bones from about halfway through the book until the end. I had been reading this kindle book for some time (June 2017- Jan 2019) and frankly as I look back I have to wonder- why did I ever finish it? I should have deep-sixed it long ago.
Sorry for the negativity but I had to get this off my chest and flush my mind of it.
Initially it was helpful but then a we got deeper into it- problems arose for me and I became disinterested and then downright hostile to the whole thing. It became problematic for me when author developed a fictitious idea to illustrate his points. I initially thought this would be helpful but the idea/concept/story line of his fictitious book was not appealing or interesting to me. It was not the sort of story I EVER would read- much less write about.
Call me silly or petty but I began skimming it and then ignoring it. The idea was not one I could follow along with and it totally turned me off. Since his examples were a major part of the learning process... well it wasn't that useful for me and I didn't benefit much or at all from reading this book. If you don't read his example there isn't much meat on the bones from about halfway through the book until the end. I had been reading this kindle book for some time (June 2017- Jan 2019) and frankly as I look back I have to wonder- why did I ever finish it? I should have deep-sixed it long ago.
Sorry for the negativity but I had to get this off my chest and flush my mind of it.
December 2, 2016
Nope. Pass. Away. This is loaded with padding which wasted my time and made it difficult to finish. I had expected a Day1-Day2-Day3 approach which is no-where on offer. Windsor is self-referential throughout, mostly in a by-example walk-through of his Dixxon novel in dull laborious and often irrelevant detail. I felt I was reading a long advert and shut out of the process. I wasn't expecting a five-star book, but this is phoned in. There are a few interesting exercises past the mid-way point, but generously there's so little (in the length), this guide could be re-written as an essay.
That's all I can say that's positive about this. I really do not like giving bad reviews. This is full of poor editing choices: many typos (non-sequitur and confusing short-hand), verboseness, repetition and misdirection. Mr. Windsor, if you should read this you might want to think about a massive overhaul second edition. The endorsements for your other books are quite good, but I'm thoroughly put off enough to write on it.
That's all I can say that's positive about this. I really do not like giving bad reviews. This is full of poor editing choices: many typos (non-sequitur and confusing short-hand), verboseness, repetition and misdirection. Mr. Windsor, if you should read this you might want to think about a massive overhaul second edition. The endorsements for your other books are quite good, but I'm thoroughly put off enough to write on it.
June 5, 2016
Yes! This book went hand and hand with the first book I read by Steve Windsor, 9 Day Novel Writing. Besides the bonus material - THANK YOU By the way, love the Scrivener Template - I wish he gave a bonus on how his excel spreadsheet looked example wise as well (that's me being picky). Seriously, I really got A LOT out of this book. I'm working on my idea(s) and looking to get my ass in gear to start. Best "How To" without a domineering attitude. It's understandable, relatable and Steve makes it fun.
September 3, 2017
Well put together
While this does not contain anything new in the philosophy of storytelling, it does provide good examples and a comprehensive way of learning. I enjoyed a fresh look at an old format.
While this does not contain anything new in the philosophy of storytelling, it does provide good examples and a comprehensive way of learning. I enjoyed a fresh look at an old format.
April 23, 2023
Too much fluff about the plot of their YA novel and not enough plotting meat.
June 25, 2015
This is the first book of Windsor's Nine Day series, and a good place to start if you've scratched your head clear down to your neck trying to figure out how to go about this writing business. None of us ever stop learning our craft, or at least trying to, and there are always tools to be found in every approach. But the more I read these how-to books, the more I start recognizing the same inescapable principles put together in forms.
The bottom line with all writing craft books is to take none as gospel and chain yourself to anybody's way of cooking your book. Take whatever turns you on from this books, give it a try, and if it ups your game, stick with it. If not, keep looking for what you need.
The bottom line with all writing craft books is to take none as gospel and chain yourself to anybody's way of cooking your book. Take whatever turns you on from this books, give it a try, and if it ups your game, stick with it. If not, keep looking for what you need.
June 27, 2017
Some good advice but far too focused on the author's own outline for one of his fiction works. I still love his voice and style, and now I have to go read the book he talked so much about in this one! It just felt less like a guide and more like an example. Still a worthwhile read for people who consider themselves pantsers. It's time you saw the light, friends!
February 3, 2016
Great stuff
Steve doesn't awesome job of showing you actionable techniques on outlining your novel. If someone is looking to improve their craft, need to pick this book up .
Steve doesn't awesome job of showing you actionable techniques on outlining your novel. If someone is looking to improve their craft, need to pick this book up .
March 5, 2016
Very helpful
A very helpful, and entertaining series. I can not wait to read the rest of these books. Three to go.
A very helpful, and entertaining series. I can not wait to read the rest of these books. Three to go.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews