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Writers often look upon outlines with fear and trembling. Won’t outlines limit your creativity and rob the joy of discovery from your first draft? Why spend all that time preparing for a story when you could be writing it? The question of “how to outline your novel” sometimes seems like poking a sleeping bear with a pointy stick.
The truth, however, is that a correctly wielded outline can be one of the most powerful weapons in your writing arsenal. Outlines ensure cohesion and balance in the finished story. They prevent wasted time pursuing dead-end ideas, allow you to craft resonant foreshadowing, and, most importantly, provide you a foundation of confidence and motivation.
In the How to Outline Your Novel series (which is a supplement for my book Outlining Your Novel , its companion the Outlining Your Novel Workbook , and the Outlining Your Novel Workbook software ), you will learn:
How to choose the right type of outline for you
How to brainstorm plot ideas
How to discover your characters
How to organize your scenes
How to format your finished outline
How to put your outline to use