Whatever you’re working on right now, you’re bound to get stuck at some point. When you stumble upon our old friend, lovingly called “writer’s block,” here are ten tips to keep the words flowing.

1. Lower your standards. Many times, we get stuck because we’re trying to make it perfect. Be willing to write garbage just to get a draft done, then go back and revise it.
2. Brainstorm ideas on a white board, legal pad, or post-it note. Changing the size of the canvas will often help you get past your block, whether it’s a huge canvas like a white board, or a tiny one like a post-it note.
3. Take a nap. You might just be tired. History is replete with examples of famous creative people who took naps to be more productive.
4. Take a walk. When you walk, the blood circulates in your body more, and you’re more alert and attentive. It’s amazing how many problems get solved in your head just by walking for ten or twenty minutes.
5. Play with a toy. I keep a few “snake toys” beside my desk to play with. It consists of a bunch of triangles connected, and you can make it into an infinite number of shapes. This brain switching helps me solve writing problems quite frequently.
6. Get up and drink a glass of water. Most of us are dehydrated most of the time, and this activity plus water will refresh your body and your mind.
7. Free write for three minutes. Free writing is just letting your hand write whatever comes to mind without stopping or judging yourself. It clears your creative palate and lets your subconscious take over for a bit. It also helps break creative blocks.
8. Switch locations. Go to another desk or another part of the house. Or you can go somewhere else entirely, like the library or coffee shop. The change in scenery will spark your creativity.
9. Switch media. If you write on computer, switch to a legal or journal. Use a different writing tool like a marker or crayon. Again, you’re helping your brain to make a switch that will break the block.
10. Read something for ten minutes. Preferably, something in print. The change in media, and also holding something tactile, will give your brain a new input.

TWO BONUS TIPS

11. Do a mundane task. Take a twenty-minute break for a mundane chore like dishes, yard work, or folding laundry. This is similar to walking in that it will give you something physical to do. The new energy and change of pace will give you new ideas and solutions to your writing block.
12. Write your content as an email. If I’m feeling stuck, sometimes I’ll open my email app on my computer and write in that. That way, it feels like I’m writing an informal message to a friend rather than something with higher stakes like a blog post or book chapter. It sounds crazy, but it really does work.

If you’re feeling blocked or a little stuck, pick one of these tips and use it today!

Daily Question: Which tip are you going to use to help you defeat writer’s block?

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Once you make the decision to start writing, and you do it on a regular basis (hopefully every day), over time you will build up quite a collection of half-baked ideas and unused pieces of material.

It might be blog posts, book chapters, social media posts, podcast material, or in the case of myself, I’m sorry to admit, entire books you have written but never released for one reason or another.

I call this my personal slush pile. The slush pile can be a great source of material when you’re looking for ideas or get a little short on time.

The term “slush pile” came from the days when writers would send manuscripts to publishers and agents through the mail. Of course, these individuals get far more manuscripts than they can possibly use, so they would put them in a big heap called the slush pile.

The more you write, the bigger your personal slush pile becomes. I recommend keeping all your work in a location, or locations, where you can easily get to it, and where you have some kind of organized filing system, even if it’s just a document that’s titled “unused ideas.”

The slush pile is not the same as a trash pile—not by a long shot. I don’t believe in trash piles for writers. Anytime you write something, it’s fair game as a spark for another idea, or to be revised or updated later. Never throw anything ideas, or any writing, away because it might come in handy later.

C.S. Lewis said, “When you give up a bit of work don’t (unless it is hopelessly bad) throw it away. Put it in a drawer. It may come in useful later. Much of my best work, or what I think my best, is the re-writing of things begun and abandoned years earlier.”

If a writer the caliber of C.S. Lewis lived by this advice, surely it’s good enough for me and you also.

Daily Question: Where do you keep your personal slush pile, and have you looked at it recently to search for ideas you can use?

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Today I want to explore a topic that a lot of people ask me about. It’s also a topic that, when you give it the attention it deserves, will transform your book-writing experience.

When I mention the topic “how to build an amazing non-fiction book outline,” it may not sound like the most exciting topic. However, if you’re writing a non-fiction book, this is a critical topic because your outline is the backbone of your book. A great outline makes everything easier.

A Few Questions …

What is a book outline? An outline is the scaffolding or framework that is the backbone of your book. I prefer to think of an outline as the journey the reader will take in order to solve a problem.

Why use a book outline? An outline makes writing much easier because you can see where you are going. It also gives you the big picture of the whole book and ensures that you are serving your reader in the best way possible.

When should you outline? It is always better to outline at the beginning because you will use your writing time wisely. You don’t have to guess where you are going. When you are “in the weeds” of writing, it’s easy to get lost in the details. The outline always brings you back to the big picture.

What Type of Non-Fiction Book Should You Write?

Knowing what you’re shooting for upfront will be a huge help when developing your outline. That way you don’t have to guess at what type of book you’re writing.

I recommend a 150-page non-fiction book (Approx. 40,000-45,000 words.). This is a great length. It’s long enough to demonstrate your expertise, but short enough not to intimidate the reader. Unless you’re Stephen King, less is always more when it comes to book length.

For the outline, I recommend 10-15 chapters, divided into 3-4 main sections. This keeps the chapters at a manageable length (2,500-3,500 words). Each chapter will be divided into 5-7 segments of 500-750 words. You can get your head around writing in these smaller chunks, and it feels less intimidating.

Note: The steps below are primarily for authors who are starting from scratch. If you already have material from your blog, podcast, workshops, presentations, etc. you can easily start from there. However, you still want to make sure and go through the following steps to ensure that you are creating a solid outline that makes sense, rather than a collection of material that is loosely related.

5 Steps to Building a Book Outline

1. Determine who your ideal reader is and the problem you are trying to solve for them.

This is a huge step all by itself. But the bottom line is that you must have a clear idea about your topic, your ideal reader, and the change you want to help them achieve as a result of reading your book.

Remember, a book is more than just a dumping ground for a bunch of information. You are taking the reader from Point A to Point B. Point B represents a place where they are happier, healthier, more successful, more abundant, or whatever change you are helping them achieve.

2. Figure out why your reader hasn’t already achieved these results.

In the book, you will use a simple sales technique where you are addressing reader objections (false beliefs). But first, you have to understand what those objections and false beliefs are.

These false beliefs typically fall into three categories:

• False beliefs about themselves (“I can’t do it,” “I’ve tried that before and it didn’t work”)
• False beliefs about the topic (“The topic isn’t relevant to me,” “Your program won’t work”)
• False beliefs about their environment (“My family doesn’t support me,” “I’ll be the odd one in my social group”)

Here are a few other ways you can discover people’s pain points related to your topic:

• Do keyword research to learn what people are searching for related to your topic: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-do-keyword-research-ht.
• You can also use a tool call Brainstorm It!, available here: https://tools.sitesell.com/.
• Spend a lot of time talking to people in your target audience to make sure you understand their pain, struggles, frustrations, and obstacles related to your topic. Don’t assume that you already know.
• Use Google to ask questions related to your topic. Google will produce even more relevant questions that will be helpful.

3. Use the reader pain points / questions and organize them into 3-4 major sections of 3-4 chapters each.

I recommend taking some time to write each pain point / question on an index card, then group them according to topic. This is where a lot of people get hung up because they don’t feel they’re organized enough to tackle this. It doesn’t need to be perfect. Go as far as you can with this step, and you’ll refine it in the next couple of steps.

Remember, you’re taking the reader on a journey. What is the most logical way to order the chapters so it makes the most sense to the reader?

Here is a typical structure for a non-fiction book (each Part consists of 3-4 chapters):

• Part 1: Foundational information about the topic; why it matters
• Parts 2-3: Dive deeper into the material and apply it to different situations
• Part 4: Special circumstances, or other material that doesn’t fit elsewhere but is still relevant

You can also use mind-mapping to help organize and brainstorm content (There is some overlapping between these steps.).

4. Look at similar books in your genre to ensure you haven’t left anything out.

No, this doesn’t mean you are copying what other authors are doing. Rather, you are ensuring that you’re covering the bases of your topic. Looking at other books in your field will also help you see where your perspective is unique. You will probably get some ideas for your book outline or structure, as well.

5. Get feedback from a few people who represent your ideal reader.

This is a key step because they will probably identify some things you missed. To keep things simple, I recommend going back to people you talked to in Step 2 and asking them to review the outline.

Action step: Spend some time brainstorming your book outline. It’s an evolving process, so don’t be afraid to dive in!

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