So last week I wrote about how outlines are an ebook’s best friend. Seriously, a good outline can make writing an ebook about a kazillion times easier. But we’re talking “good” outlines, my friend…not some half-assed notes you jotted down on scraps of paper.

So how do you get to said “good” outline? It’s a process, but an easy one. And don’t we all like EASY? (I know I do!)

You start off with your basics…I usually write out – in short descriptive notes – what I want to write about. And I will make sure I will give each major topic or area its own chapter. Segregation is a good thing, when it comes to writing. We like our segregation because too many thoughts within a single chapter, within a single page, even, can get your message all jumbled up. And you don’t want that!

To give you an example of what I would start with, I’ll take my own ebook – The WAHM Agent. And I’ll take you through the steps of outlining the first book. (Hey, I’m a ghostwriter…I can’t cough up the work I do for my clients, you know!!)

My initial outline looks pretty basic:

Imagine if I started to write from that. And yet people do it all the time. If you leave things that broad, you’re bound to run into trouble. So after you have the basic bones, you add to it. Note that it helps to pose a question for each chapter…and each chapter should be able to answer that question!

You can see that already, there is more meat on the outline bones here. At this point, I would suggest setting the outline aside, especially if you can’t come up with anything additional. You can set it aside for a few hours, but ideally setting it aside overnight helps give your brain some time to “re-set” and come up with more juicy stuff the following day.

So here’s what the outline would look like after setting it aside and giving it some time to really develop…(I’m actually only going to show you the intro and first chapter so the graphic doesn’t get ULTRA TINY and you don’t get bored by an ULTRA LONG outline)…

As you can see, the further I flesh it out, the more points I know I will cover. And in the end, I can write an ebook by pretty much filling in the blanks!

So…by properly fleshing out an outline you save time on the actual writing since your flow is already laid out for you and your points are clear!

How do you like to create your outlines??