part0007

Because this book is designed to be a step-by-step guide, you’ll likely be referencing it a lot as you work on your outline. To try and make that process easier, I have a few tips and recommendations.

For starters, I encourage you to read each chapter and then complete its goals before moving on to later days. Every day of this challenge is designed to build towards the next, so you won’t want to jump around out of order. By reading each chapter as you work on its goals, you should find the whole process is much more organized and easier to follow.

Of course, you may occasionally need a reminder of what your goals are for each day. In those instances, you can either flip to the goals at the end of each chapter or to The Complete Ten Day Outlining Process at the very back of the book.

To complete this challenge, you should only need to dedicate one or two hours each day to writing. However, there will be a few days later in the challenge that will require more time—specifically Days Seven and Eight. If possible, complete those days when you know you’ll have extra time to spare.

I strongly encourage you to complete this challenge in ten days. When at its best, outlining is a quick process meant to capture the original spark of inspiration that got you excited to write in the first place. As more and more time passes between days, you may find yourself losing steam.

Completing the challenge over ten consecutive days will also help immerse you in your story. You’ll come up with new ideas while doing the dishes, driving to work, and walking the dog, simply because you've tuned your creative subconscious into your story.

While you can certainly split the challenge up if needed—life does get in the way, of course—your story will benefit the most from doing each day in order, one after the other.

I won’t lie to you—this is a challenge for a reason. Some of these days, especially the final few, will have you asking tough questions about the story you want to tell.

However, by the tenth day I’m confident that work will have paid off. After completing this process over and over while testing and iterating on it, I can’t say I’ve reached Day Ten a single time and still had reservations about the story I had just created.

No problem! You may have a head start on some of your goals, but the end result will be the same. You should still plan to complete the full ten-day challenge from start to finish in order to get the most out of it.

In the case of a series, there are a few ways to approach this challenge. Perhaps the easiest is to complete all ten days for each book you plan to write, just like you would if they were standalone novels. However, this is also the longest route.

Personally, I prefer to complete Days One through Four with my entire series in mind, treating it as if it was one massive book. From there, you can easily finish the challenge for each individual novel you plan to write, using your work from Days One through Four as a foundation.

This book is designed with beginners in mind, so I’ll do my best to explain basic terms and information when necessary. However, having an understanding of common storytelling concepts like story structure and character development will make a big difference in how your outline ultimately turns out.

However, since I won’t have space to explain every detail, I’ve created a few free resources on story structure and character creation that you can check out here:

If you’re unfamiliar with either of these concepts, I strongly encourage you to check those resources out. They’ll make a big difference in how comfortable you are with many of the goals found in later chapters, and will make this challenge easier overall.