How Much Planning Do You Really Need to Do Before Writing Your Book?
This blog post is for you if you've been thinking about writing a book, but the idea of outlining and researching and planning low-key gives you hives.
Even if you're more of a discovery writer (aka a “pantser”), I still think you need at least a concept of a plan! 🤭
I’m going to cover what's included in a super detailed plan and what I’d say is the bare minimum you can probably get away with. At the end of the day, it's whatever you want to do, but your book can’t have an impact until you write it!
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Now, you’ve got two options for planning your book…
Option #1: Plan as much as you can to make drafting a breeze
A detailed plan for your book might include:
→ The main takeaway of your book: All books have one, so might as well be intentional with it.
→ Who you’re writing for. It’s cool if it’s just for yourself right now, but eventually you should be able to describe your ideal reader like you’ve known them for life.
→ Everything there is to know about your main character and their transformation, the setting, the conflict. (Fiction)
→ Everything your reader needs to know to solve their specific problem or learn what they wanna learn from your book. (Nonfiction)
→ A super specific outline for every chapter or scene in your book.
Option #2: Figure out the bare minimum and discover the rest as you write
A bare minimum plan might inlcude:
→ The main takeaway of your book.
→ Who you’re writing for and what they need from your book (especially for nonfiction books—your reader is the main character!).
→ The basic gist of who your main character is and what they want. (Fiction)
→ A high-level outline of only the key scenes. (Fiction)
→ A table of contents with chapter titles and maybe one sentence to describe what each chapter is about and/or the point of each chapter. (Nonfiction)
Same number of things, vastly different amounts of work involved. Neither is truly better than the other, but I am definitely partial to detailed plans. They tend keep writers focused! Either way, do what’s best for you.
