The Secrets To Outlining your Novel: How to Clearly Organize your Story Ideas into an Epic Book you can Write and Publish

by John S. Warner

Crafting an Epic Guide to Success By John S. Warner How many times have you gone through something and said “I could write a book about this!”? Now is the time to stop doubting and start planning! For some, writing is a calling. For the rest of us, it still remains a dream. You might have taken some courses on creative writing, or scribbled down some rough drafts, but you can’t seem to take it to the next level. Wherever you happen to be on your journey, some education is crucial. This learning curve isn’t about syntax or grammar—there are professionals that can do that for you. But only you can tell the story . But where do you even start? Just as every great meal starts with a recipe, every epic novel starts with an epic outline. But is an outline really necessary? Can’t you just wing it? Isn’t all that time on an outline better spent on actually writing? And doesn’t an outline just pour water on that spark of creativity? That’s what you may have heard…until now! In The Secrets to Outlining Your Novel, you will And much more. Perhaps you have already written your first draft and can’t see the point in an outline right now. You could keep writing and finish your book, only to get negative feedback that could have been resolved in the very first stages. Remember that writing is like the fable of The Hare and the Tortoise . Slow and steady will always beat quick and careless! If you’re ready to take your story idea from a seed in your mind to a concrete fleshed-out novel, then scroll up and click the “Add to Cart” button right now.

Genres: Writing

176 pages, Paperback

Published August 13, 2022

Reviews

[Autum · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, but I was taken out of the experience by a few typos and issues I found. Also, I really liked how it broke down outlining at the end by genres, but we didn’t talk about fantasy or sci fi 😭

[Larry Newell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Does not show examples. Does not tell us how to make the spreadsheet work. I cannot make the columns

Does not show examples. Does not tell us how to make the spreadsheet work. I cannot make the columns do what this guy says that they are doing for him.

[Kasha K. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a mixed bag, mostly a disappointing one.

When Warner talks about pantsers vs plotters in the beginning, he suggests identifying yourself as a writer using his four metaphors. He first describes pantsers as 'gardeners' who cultivate the story organically, while plotters are 'architects' with detailed blueprints. So far, it makes perfect sense and the metaphors work for me. I like the idea of the gardener.
Then he introduces two different "in-between" metaphors, and completely loses me there. A 'designer' who starts with just a pencil sketch and a vision of what the painting will look like but no set color scheme? I know SO many designers who start by picking a color palette. I get that what he means is one who starts with a skeleton and fleshes it out, but the metaphor doesn't work for me.
And then he talks about a 'knitter':

"They sit and write as the scenes pop into their imagination and do a lot of reverse engineering to weave the threads together. It's like filling in the blanks as they write. An outline will be helpful for them as long as they can go back and forth in moving the scenes around."

As someone who has done a fair bit of knitting I absolutely resent this metaphor. Knitting anything more intricate than a scarf actually takes a fair bit of planning OR a pattern designed by someone else. Knitting is highly mathematical and methodical. You need to understand what you're doing if you intend to improvise something. If you notice a mistake and have to go back to fix it, you have to unravel what you've already done. Going "back and forth" when knitting is immensely frustrating, wastes a lot of time and sometimes makes the yarn harder to work with.
I already felt he dropped the ball with the clumsy metaphors, and unfortunately it didn't get that much better.

Most of the actual outlining methods were barebones descriptions with no visual aids or examples. The "Bookend method" gets a whole two paragraphs. He says it's widely used but does not name a single specific example.

The logic behind the bookend technique is simple: Once you know where you start from and where you are headed, you will not lose your way. It is a sound organizing principle for your writing, as you already have a clear sense of getting closure to your narrative.

Oh, easy peasy. There's a short dude with a ring, now he just needs to get to the volcano to destroy it. Umm... tell you what, he takes a massive flying bird there, drops the ring in the fire and saves the world. The End.
Some other methods he talks about more. He even explains his own method, almost step by step, but still it's far from a crystal clear explanation. A picture or two would go a long way. Not sure if the printed version contains any, but the Kindle one certainly doesn't.

There were some attempts at explaning genre specific outlining. I ended up skimming a lot of it. It was strange that he spent so much time about researching the market for children's books without once mentioning that it's often parents and other adults who actually make the decision what books are bought and read out loud, especially when the readers are still young.

Also, I really got tired of the amount of J.K.Rowling/Harry Potter references. She got a disproportionate amount of mentions compared to any other author. In fact, the author mentions Rowling more often than the metaphors of writer types that the reader is supposed to identify with. (He kinda forgets about them at one point and then to them at one point and otherwise just gets back to them at the end of the book).

There were a few sections with a more concrete "how to" -ideas such as questions for character development. Even those didn't really feel very comprehensive.

If this were a first draft, I'd say it has potential but needs a lot of fleshing out. In my opinion, a more accurate title to this book would be: "Outlining a Novel: A Brief Overview of Methods".

[Paul Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book discusses the difference between writers who like to fly by the seat of their pants (pantsers) and those who prefer to plot in advance. John S Warner is definitely a plotter, and this is a handbook for his fellow plotters. Refreshingly, though, he isn’t dogmatic and, though he convincingly lays out the pros of plotting, he doesn’t insist that there is one right way of doing things.
Warner has studied his craft and writes about the techniques different best-selling authors use. I would have liked to read something about Philip Pullman, who I understand to be something of a pantser.
The book sets out different methods of plotting a novel and goes on to discuss plot holes, timelines and settings. Next comes a section on creating characters and character arcs and how to use chapters.
Finally, we look at the requirements for a number of different genres: children’s fiction, thrillers/horror, romance novels, war/history and crime/detective. Finally, some general advice on what makes good popular fiction.
This is a companion piece to Warner’s “Secrets of Creating Character Arcs”. For me, as a writer with three novels under my belt about to undertake a major rewrite of a fourth, I got more from his Character Arcs book than from this one. But I am in no doubt that I would have benefited from reading this book before I wrote my first.
For that reason, I would strongly recommend this book to first-time authors, maybe with Character Arcs as a follow-up. Warner has two great strengths as a writer on writing. The first is his knowledge of his craft. The second is his clarity.
I hesitated between 4 and 5 stars. Maybe five stars for a new author but four for me. His book on Character Arcs is definitely 5 stars.

[Joy Cagil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don’t let the title of this book fool you. Yes, it is about outlining a novel but it is much more than that.

Although it starts with outlining whys and hows and goes into different style of outlines, it also makes you think about what kind of a writer you are and which type of an outline would fit your personality and makeup.

Still, this is not all but only the beginning. The author gives you an almost entire novel writing how-to from the opening image to the finale and the final image, from all the story elements like plotting, setting, timing, story goal, to characterization with the addition of a several good questions for the writer to ask himself along to way, plus character sheets and some serious advice for all genres, even about writing for children.

Saying more would be giving away a lot, but I found this book to be a powerful teacher and thus, I had to mention a few points inside it, so the writers who are contemplating in getting this book understand that they will have a carefully detailed book and who knows, they may need no other book on writing after giving close attention to this one.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read writing guides, I come away with the impression that writing novels is easy, like filling out a Mad Libs template & voilà! In this case, the title of the book kind of undersells it. The book discusses different outlining techniques and how to structure different genres, including children’s books. But amongst other things, it discusses setting & building characters (with a long list of questions you should ask yourself for the latter). In addition, we learn of the interesting writing approaches of famous authors.
Cons: there were some editing issues and I felt that the author belabored the importance of doing an outline (maybe because he was preaching to the choir).
I was provided with an ARC (thanks to the author & publisher!) and I am voluntarily posting my honest review.

[Denis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again John Warner has come up trumps. His series of books on writing are fast becoming my go to reference material for writing. As an aspiring writer I have struggled to find a suitable manual for my craft. This work is now a stable in my writing library. I am always looking for reference works to assist in the fiction writing process. I have read quite a few but very few have had the impact that this work has had. I found it engaging and the exercises worthwhile. I have annotated by copy so that I can reuse is advise and guidance.

In addition the reference list is a wealth of further information for any who want to expand their writing craft. Well worth the cost.

[Sarah Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of this book gave me useful outlines that I might use for writing my stories. The second half was focused on different genres and had some good genre-specific outlines, though the advice was rather generic. I would give this book 4/5 for content and 2/5 for the way he writes it. Sometimes his sentences are a little confusing and I spotted at least thirty spelling mistakes. Perhaps you can't spend so much time proofreading when you think that a publishable 200-250 page novel can be written in as little as 3-4 months...

[Alyson Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really informative

I picked this book up because I've been struggling to find an outline method that fits for me and my wip. This book contains several methods for several genres, giving examples from major authors and well known books. I enjoyed reading about the different methods for each genre and I think with a mash up and use of some of the questions presented, I'll have a pretty strong outline plan for myself

[Samuel Cooley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful

Once again, John Warner has provided a book that is helpful to any and all creative writers. By providing multiple examples for different types of outlines for many genres, this book is a must have for any writer interested in finding an outline style that can suit them.

[King Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like sitting at bar with a friendly expert

Mr. Warner's book covers a lot of ground on the subject of outlining, but it's never tedious. The book is nicely organized, allowing you to skip over references to genre beyond your interests.

[Chad Hoey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good and helpful. I’m sure I’ll be reading this multiple times and taking notes.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book explaining in an amusing and very clear way, why and how to outline your novel. I’ve got loads of notes and I will revisit this book again and again.

[Anniee Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woah

This was a very informative book. The tools you need and even the ones you didn't think you needed are here. I highly recommend

[Karolyn Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very informative and gives different outline methods. I felt it was written well.