type in chapter headings. Most books have around ten to 15 chapters. If yours has
more than 1 5, that's fine.
Only got three or four headings? No matter how little material you have, or
how much, don’t worry. This is the initial stages, remember. Just work quickly so that
you get something down on paper. Tomorrow we'll be researching your book, and as
you research, you're sure to find many more headings for your outline.
In these very early stages of working on your proposal, your subconscious
mind is your greatest resource. Therefore, if you get an impulse to write down
something, write it down, even if it doesn’t make much sense to you. The reason you
got this idea will come to you.Day Four: Research your book proposal, and flesh out
your book's outline
Day Four Tasks
(^)
Task One: Create your research plan
It's a good idea to create a research plan to guide you, both in writing your proposal,
and later in writing your book. Knowing that you can find all the information you
need is a confidence-builder.Task Two: Create a chapter outline for your book
Write a chapter outline for your book proposal.^
Research: How much do you need to know?
Remember that this is just a proposal, you're not writing the complete book.
Therefore, you may not need to do any research at all. You may have all the material
you need. If this is the case, you can go right on to fleshing out your outline.
If you need to gather material, then first you should develop a research plan.
This may take you an hour or two, but it's time well spent. You will use this plan first
to develop your proposal, and later when you’re writing your book. For your proposal,
you probably won’t need to go past # 6 in your plan to get all the information you
need.