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Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success (Helping Writers Become Authors Book 1) by [K.M. Weiland]

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K. M. Weiland

Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success (Helping Writers Become Authors Book 1) Kindle Edition

by K.M. Weiland (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

1,806 ratings

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Can Outlining Help You Write a Better Story?

Writers often look upon outlines with fear and trembling. But when properly understood and correctly wielded, the outline is one of the most powerful weapons in a writer’s arsenal.

Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success will:

•Help you choose the right type of outline for you
•Guide you in brainstorming plot ideas
•Aid you in discovering your characters
•Show you how to structure your scenes
•Explain how to format your finished outline
•Instruct you in how to use your outline
•Reveal the benefits
•Dispel the misconceptions

Includes exclusive interviews with ten respected authors, answering important questions about outlining.

Outlining can organize your writing and help you take your stories to the next level. Find out how!

Print length

167 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publication date

November 28, 2013
File size

1538 KB
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

K.M. Weiland lives in make-believe worlds, talks to imaginary friends, and survives primarily on chocolate truffles and espresso. She is the internationally published author of the Amazon bestsellers Outlining Your Novel and Structuring Your Novel, as well as the western A Man Called Outlaw, the medieval epic Behold the Dawn, and the epic fantasy Dreamlander. When she's not making things up, she's busy mentoring other authors on her site helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com. She makes her home in western Nebraska. Find out more about her fiction at kmweiland.com. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005NAUKAC
Publisher ‏ : ‎ PenForASword Publishing (November 28, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 28, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1538 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 167 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #55,367 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #29 in Writing Skill Reference (Kindle Store)
- #72 in Writing Skill Reference (Books)
- #138 in Fiction Writing Reference (Books)

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1,806 ratings

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K. M. Weiland

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K.M. Weiland lives in make-believe worlds, talks to imaginary friends, and survives primarily on chocolate truffles and espresso. She is the award-winning and internationally published author of the acclaimed writing guides Outlining Your Novel, Structuring Your Novel, and Creating Character Arcs. Her fiction includes the gaslamp fantasy Wayfarer, the historical/dieselpunk adventure Storming, the portal fantasy Dreamlander, and the medieval epic Behold the Dawn. When she’s not making things up, she’s busy mentoring other authors on her award-winning blog Helping Writers Become Authors.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

1,806 global ratings

5 star		74%
4 star		17%
3 star		6%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Peter Neeves

Very good resource.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 10, 2023

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This, for an aspiring writer, is fantastic. The book is a very good resource for how to get started with the complex process of writing a novel, by guiding you through creating an outline. The book covers a lot of ground and gives concrete examples. The book is very actionable, you can follow the book and do what is suggested - this is awesome, and not that common. The book is also inspiring, as many new writers, I believe, struggle with how to go about this monumental task, this gives them a solution, and in that solution, hope. Highly recommend.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 4, 2023

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Happy with purchase.

Helpful

It "feels" heavily focused on character development versus outlining a novel

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 14, 2014

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Rating System:
1 star = abysmal; some books deserve to be forgotten
2 star = poor; almost a complete waste of time
3 star = good; worth the effort
4 star = very good; what writing should be
5 star = fantastic; must own it and share it with others

Here is my "outline" of this book. . .

Chapter 1 - Arguments & myth-busting of whether you should outline or not
Chapter 2 - Understanding different types of outlining
Chapter 3 - Turning an idea into a story
Chapter 4 - Jump into summarizing your scene list
Chapter 5 - Developing Characters part 1 - Motives & Desires
Chapter 6 - Developing Characters part 2 - Backstory
Chapter 7 - Developing Characters part 3 - Personality
Chapter 8 - Developing Characters part 4 - Reacting to Setting
Chapter 9 - POV and story structure basics
Chapter 10 - Fleshing out your outlined scenes

Having read and owned no less than six(6) books on outlining and having outlined for the last five or six NaNoWriMo's, I had to add this book to my library when I saw it.

WHY only TWO STARS overall?
Many of the chapters are pretty short, except the ones on character development. Those chapters "felt" like they were three times as long as any other chapter, which is why I'm left with a sense that this is a method intended for character driven stories. No love for plot-driven stories (can anyone say "most Hollywood blockbuster plots?").

Some chapters are real short, such as Setting and Story Structure, since entire books could be devoted to helping you world build or analyze different types of story frameworks. As proven by this author having a separate book on story structure titled: Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story .

In addition to the chapters being short and feeling like the topic covered were light, how these chapters translate into an actual outline is a little more vague. . .at least it was ambiguous for me.

WHY at least THREE STARS overall?
What adds credibility to the author's work is near the end of several chapters we get an different author's interview on the power of how outlining has helped them write their stories and get published. I like that!

Also, I like the Summary / Checklist at the end of most chapters. For my analytical mind, I needed the checklist! I can more easily quantify the steps to work through as suggested by the author. . . thanks to the list.

WHY I ended up rating this a FOUR STARS:
I'm more analytically minded and I want a complete list of what steps I need to go through to outline. This book is written for a more organic process.

You'll more "organically" create an outline that grows and evolves, as you flesh out your characters and answer key questions about your story versus a method that "tells you" to create a framework such as:
1. Protagonist introduced in Act 1 = check;
2. Romantic Involvement escalates in Act 2 = check
3. Chance of first kiss after story Resolution = check
4. etc. . . .

This book is not meant to give you a scene-by-scene blow of "use this framework", but to help you answer questions and develop your own outline. If you want a more scene-by-scene framework, I suggest The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing

OVERALL:
I don't think you should ONLY limit yourself to reading this book to help you outline or develop your novel. Instead it's a supplement to other outlining/novel planning books.

What this book is helping me do is flesh out my characters more, which is resulting in new story opportunities, which I can then translate those opportunities into the "organic" outline.

Thus, this book is a good addition to one's library.

TESTIMONIAL:
It wasn't till I switched from being a discovery writer to outline writer that I more than TRIPLED my daily word count. Also, I've completed more first drafts because of outlines. Lastly, if I had to take a break, the outline helped me jump back into the fiction story or the non-fiction book a lot quicker.

Just my two cents.

38 people found this helpful

Helpful

A MUST READ FOR THE STRUGGLING WRITER

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 5, 2015

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My writing journey has been a slow one. My life is full, and I'm in a busy season of my life. Still, the desire to write is constantly present.

Once I made the outrageous decision to write a novel, I picked up a copy of Stephen King's, On Writing. Though it inspired me to dive in, it failed to give me concrete structure; hence, I became a seat-of-the-pants writer. I've gain knowledge along the way, perfecting my craft as I go from published and unpublished authors, the internet, classes, workshops, books on writing, and from reading others work. If there is one thing that can be said about writers it is that many have a strong opinion of whether one should be a pantser (Seat-of-the-pants-writer) or a plotter (An outliner).

I plunged full force into writing, though a bit unsure, content in my approach. Over time, the words of outliners began to sink in. Then I hit a brick wall. I realized my writing was missing something, and if I were not mistaking, it meant I needed to change my approach to staring a novel. I began to add different methods such as characterization and goal, motivation, and conflict charts. Still my stories lacked.

Convinced that I needed to make some serious changes, I gave in to the idea that I needed to do some major legwork before beginning a story. When I spotted OUTLINING YOUR NOVEL: MAP YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS by K.M. WEILAND, I read the reviews and pondered the thought of purchasing it. Did I really want to become an outliner? Could I even do it?

Something I have learned over time is the variations of the words pantsers and plotters. It is not an all or nothing approach, or one-size-fits-all. One of the things that drew me to MS WEILAND'S book on outlining is her attitude of the two approaches. She neither overly praised one or badmouthed the other. It was all about finding the unique formula fit for you.

My copy of OUTLINING YOUR NOVEL: MAP YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS is packed with handwritten notes, highlights and dog-eared pages. It is truly a wealth of information and an eye-opening experience. You know a book is worth every penny when you have a light bulb moment.

With too many examples to list, I will note the simplicity and examples MS WEILAND chose in OUTLINING YOUR NOVEL: MAP YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS was instrumental in creating a book on the craft that will influence my writing forever. The book is written in a way that will have you looking forward to reading it each day, completing it from cover to cover.

To be honest, I was on the fence whether to purchase this book, having several books I've read on the craft of writing, as well as waiting to be read on my shelf. I am certainly glad I listened to the five star and not one star, reviews. I would not label this book for "new writers", but for struggling writers, which can be at any point of one's journey.

So impressed was I with MS WEILAND'S knowledge on writing and her style in OUTLINING YOUR NOVEL: MAP YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS , I purchased a couple of her novels.

Information on OUTLINING YOUR NOVEL: MAP YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS:

* Help you choose the right type of outline for you
* Guide you in brainstorming plot ideas
* Aid you in discovering your characters
* Show you how to structure your scenes
* Explain how to format your finished outline
* Instruct you in how to use your outline

Reveal the benefits:

* Ensures cohesion and balance
* Prevents dead-end ideas
* Provides foreshadowing
* Offers assurance and motivation

Dispel misconceptions:

* Requires formal formatting
* Limits creativity
* Robs the joy of discovery
* Takes too much time

93 people found this helpful

Helpful

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The Reading Room

An Introduction to Outlining

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 25, 2018

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An interesting introduction to one method of outlining, but didn’t work well for me in the kindle format – 3 stars

Firstly, I’ll get the negatives I found out of the way: In the main, this was due to the Kindle format just not lending this book to easy reference usage. There are no page numbers, and this led to me using multiple bookmarks. Unfortunately, I didn’t find this a satisfactory way of skipping to various sections to assimilate salient points.

I also have to say that I didn’t find the overall structure of the book particularly helpful. Interspersed throughout were comments from various authors on their approach to outlining, and, while these did offer-up fresh ideas, I felt they interrupted the flow of the main content.

There are plenty of positives though: This book is ideal for anyone looking to get started on novel writing for the first time. The content is presented gradually, in very simple language, and has plenty of examples of how Weiland uses the techniques she discusses in her own books.

It also explained the basic requirements of character arcs, time-frames, the importance of location, and provided some useful hints on how to keep track of and balance content. In addition, it makes suggestions for writing programs that any budding author might find useful.

Overall, this was a book that I wanted to get the most from, and I have since purchased a paperback copy. This I find much more useful as I can make notations in the margins which help me tie-up with other sections/pages. Plus, it’s a lot easier to navigate to a particular section that I might want to review.

14 people found this helpful

PictoPirate

Useful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 25, 2023

Verified Purchase

Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success is another writer guide from the prolific K.M. Weiland. As will all of these kinds of books, your mileage may vary, but I found it helpful, and the key with all of this stuff is to try things, keep what works for you and throw out all the rest.

There is no one or best way to write a book. The only good way is the way that works for you.

The first few sections are about things I would consider well before the outlining phase personally. They are essentially a bunch of exercises to figure out what kind of story you want to tell with brainstorming and open-ended writing. I found them interesting tools to dabble with, but I usually know where I'm going, if only very broadly, before I put pen to paper.

The later chapters focused more on what I would consider actual outlining and were helpful. I've never been much of a planner (in life or writing), so any tips would improve things. I'm working on an outline for my latest book now, so I'm going to throw some of them into the mix and see what shakes out.

At least I have a roadmap for making my roadmap now...

Andrew

A must-read for any writer

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 20, 2020

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I loved reading this book! It was jam-packed with insightful information, tips and exercises, all of which were brilliantly explained in a light, not-too-serious way. I would highly recommend it to any writer, whether you're just starting your first novel or you've already published half a dozen. I'm just about to use all I've learnt to write my new novel — hopefully it'll be a successful journey and the car won't end up abandoned and upside down on the side of the road!

6 people found this helpful

Ben Hatfield

Seems good in theory, not great for anything oast beginners

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 16, 2022

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I like the idea of it! A way to diversify your thinking and approaches ie: use mindmaps to help you get out of a linear thought/plotting process. Unfortunately it's stuck at just brainstorming level. I found that it offered little information on each area and left it at surface level for each part. Also, and this might just be a 1 off for me, the binding is very poor on my book. Every few pages there's a page that has not been bound with the rest. I understand that this glue based perfect binding needs all the pages to line up to work best but it just doesn't offer the idea that it was a quality process that went into making it

Annie

A gem of inspiration

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 22, 2019

Verified Purchase

I've been a pantser through three novels; I loved getting lost in the writing, but they are not finished. So I decided to bite on the bullet and turn my mind to outlining first which I have found very difficult in the past.
Working through Outlining Your Novel, in conjunction with its companion workbook, gave me an excited, stimulated mental environment, asked me all the best questions as if I had a coach at my elbow, and I conjured a structure for a trilogy from an initially very misty idea.

Onward with filling them out with the research and words I love, and perhaps I've learnt enough to finish the other three, too??

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