by Bella Pope  on The Write Life site:

Writing a book is beyond hard. Those of us in the thick of the book writing process know that.

Which means if there’s something that can make the entire process easier, we’d likely hop on it as fast as possible. Luckily, that very method exists and it goes by the intimidating name of outlining.

If you’re not sure what an outline is, you’re not alone.

When I first started out, I had no idea what this was and how it could help me but after failing miserably to get through even half of my first “book,” I knew I needed some help. After research I realized there are a lot of benefits to creating an outline for your book, and they’re really not difficult to understand, either.

Think of an outline as a document that lists the events of your novel by chapter. It’s instructions or blueprints for writing your book.

There are tons of different methods for making an outline that works, but as long as you end up with detailed instructions for the direction of your book from start to finish, it’ll be effective.

An outline will save you time, energy and a bunch of stress. Time is precious. Even non-writers can agree with that. However, time for writers is probably a little more important than it is for other people and that’s because writing takes a long time.

And yes, without an outline, you will have errors.

With an outline, you’ll still run into some issues here and there but in order to avoid a majority of them, you should use one. Here’s how making an outline and sticking to it will save your novel.

Find out more at:

6 Reasons to Create a Book Outline