The Motivational Editor

Helping Writers Go from Unpublished to Published

Debra

How to Outline a Nonfiction Book

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Scrivener cork board outline

When I hear the word outline, I’m back in grade school laboring through
I.
A.
B.
II.
III.

Is that what comes to mind for you when someone starts talking outlines.

But that’s not what you need to do!

Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Online Dictionary gives these definitions of outline: “the principal features or general principles of a subject of discussion; a summary giving the essential content of a written work.”

So when I say, outline your book, I simply mean jot down the main content you plan to cover. Bullet points will do.

The concept behind outlining is to help you take command of your topic and organize the information in a manner suited to your audience. Otherwise you might end up with a book that includes everything but the Mad Hatter’s top hat.

Let’s take a closer look.

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Dealing with Overwhelm: Start with the Next Tiny Step

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Overwhelm can be paralyzing. And as I mentioned in my post “Don’t Be Afraid to Make Mistakes,” fear can be an underlying factor to that overwhelm.

Today I’d like to talk about a method that has helped me move through my fear and get things done. It’s called the Next Tiny Step (NTS) and was developed by New Zealander Richard Ralston.

What is Next Tiny Step?

Here’s how Richard describes it:

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Don’t be afraid to make a mistake.

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Overwhelm is a frequent topic of discussion among writers, as evidenced by last month’s blog post, “Are you feeling overwhelmed with publishing your book?”

Family and job responsibilities can contribute to it. A lot of things have to be done, and we look at it and think, “This is impossible.”

But that simply forces us to look at the problem rather than empowering us to open ourselves to the solution.

The fear of making a mistake can feel like stepping off a cliff.
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Are you feeling overwhelmed with publishing your book?

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Dealing with overwhelm

Publishing a book can pile on the overwhelm. Let’s face it, there are a lot of things to be done besides writing the book.

Actually any project can seem overwhelming when we consider all that must be done and think we need to do it all at the same time.

A good method to deal with overwhelm is to break your project into smaller pieces. A supervisor I once had taught me this. She called it the swiss cheese method—poking little holes in the project one at a time.

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Morning Pages – Creative Dribble or Creative Genius

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The Artist's Way and doing morning pages

I recently started the practice of writing morning pages every day before I begin my work hours. I asked myself a time or two whether they were a useful tool or a waste of time.

You’re probably asking, “What are morning pages?”

They’re a tool created by author Julia Cameron. She discusses them in her bestselling book The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. The book is a 12-week course in creative recovery. She says morning pages are:

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What Not to Do in Setting Goals

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Goals give us direction.

I couldn’t let December pass without visiting the topic of setting goals.

As I write this, it is still November, but I have set aside December to review my 2023 goals. I’ll figure out where I went wrong with those I didn’t meet, and what I did right with those I accomplished.

Goals give us direction.

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Success, Comparison, and Jealousy

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I am a writer. Stop the comparison game.

Last month, one of my Tuesday tip emails prompted a reader to contact me. She asked if I’d ever written about jealousy. She was referring to the jealousy we might feel when we look at the success of other writers in comparison to our own.

When I discovered I’d never touched on the topic, I decided it was time.

The Comparison Trap

I can’t stress enough how unproductive and self-defeating comparing ourselves is. I struggled with this issue a lot during my childhood (having a twin sister made it easy) and on into adulthood.

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What Can You Expect with a Line Edit?

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Editor Kristin Noland

This month we’re hearing from Kristin Noland. Kristin is an internationally renowned professional editor, specializing in developmental, line, and copy editing of speculative fiction.

She’s edited over seventy manuscripts, including two bestsellers.

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