Welcome back to B is for Book Coach. Today, we’re making space for a guided 5 Minute Outline.
I’ve now introduced you to the 5 Minute Outline, and we practiced with the outline for an entire book as well as a single, general nonfiction chapter. Today, we’re going to zoom in to outline a chapter that’s primarily driven by personal storytelling.
If you missed those first episodes, you might want to switch over to them first to get a better feel for what this exercise is. Otherwise, we’ll use the next few minutes as an almost meditative approach to bringing a chapter into focus.
Here’s how we’ll do it:
In five, one-minute long segments, I will give you prompts and tell you where to write them down. You will write for the duration of that minute, allowing any and everything to come to the surface.
No stopping. No editing. No judging.
Before we begin, get a chapter in mind that you’d like to draft, then pause to get a pencil and paper.
While you’re at it, envision the book as a completed project. Imagine yourself handing it to a real person, feeling excited and proud to have created something that you know will help them out.
And imagine that whatever other chapters that precede this one have done their job. Your reader is fully ready to embrace the one message you’re about to offer in this chapter.
Then, write the numbers one through five onto that paper.
Shake out your muscles, take a deep breath—or several—make sure you’re in a quiet place, and we will begin with our pencils on number three.
Minute One/Number Three: What’s the biggest thing I learned?
Beginnings are hard, so we’re not going to start there.
Write the question “What’s the biggest thing I learned?” next to the number three—we’ll get back to numbers one and two in a minute—and we’ll begin.
[Timer starts]
What is the key moment of this story where I, or the person I’m writing about, learned something new?
When did the lightbulb moment happen that changed everything?
What did I see, feel, or think differently when that happened?
What was the pivotal moment where something different became real to me in a way that I couldn’t unsee anymore?
What stuck with me from this story that makes it worth telling?
Where did I change completely?
[Timer stops]
Now stop, and quickly review what you’ve written.
What stands out as the key moment?
Circle it, then shift your pencil to number one on the list and get ready for minute two.
Minute Two/Number One: What was I doing before I learned this thing?
The key moment is where we’re going. Now let’s look at where we’re starting.
Next to number one, write “What was I doing before?” and take another deep breath.
Let’s go…
[Timer starts]
What was I facing or struggling with before that key moment?
What was the peak of that struggle?
What pain made me seek out a different way of being or understanding?
Maybe a concern…A point of resistance or confusion that set me on the hunt…
Maybe I was curious about something but looking in the wrong directions…
Maybe I was trying something and getting it wrong…
Who was I before the key change?
What was I doing before the key learning?
Where did I start?
[Timer stops]
Stop writing, and once again, circle what seems most relevant or interesting in this moment.
Now shift down to number two in your list, and we’ll move on.
Minute Three/Number Two: What was in my way?
This minute will probably bring up the biggest range of ideas, so be ready to write down absolutely everything that comes to mind.
But only for this one minute.
Write “What was in my way?” and take that big, deep breath.
Ready, set…
[Timer starts]
As we turn our attention toward that key moment, what took me so long to get there?
What obstacles kept me from seeing or embracing that thing sooner?
Mindsets…habits…things I didn’t know…things I didn’t want to know…
Relationships…fears…misunderstandings…
What did I have to overcome before I could understand this concept better?
What was in my way?
[Timer stops] Now stop writing, even if you have plenty more to list out. This is enough for now.
And I still want you to circle the most significant obstacle that you see in this list, but each of them will likely become relevant as you begin to write.
But first, let’s shift down to number four on the list, remembering that we already named the key moment on number three.
Minute Four/Number Four: What anchored me to the thing I learned?
On number four, write “What anchored me?” and know that this one may bring up the least content. And that’s okay.
This is deep diving that we’re doing here. And in one minute we can only get so far.
So write something down as we move through this minute, even if it’s “I don’t know, but maybe…” and we’ll see what comes up.
[Timer starts]
What did I need to fully see or believe before I could hold onto what I learned?
What helped me believe this change was possible for me?
What helped me begin to live out this change or concept or understanding?
Who or what embodied the lesson for me so that I could replicate it?
What anchored me to that key learning?
What left the lightbulb on?
[Timer stops]
That’s all for now. Don’t worry if you don’t have much here. For some content, this spot is hard because we don’t yet know what will anchor the reader to a topic.
For storytelling content, and especially personal storytelling content, it’s hard because we haven’t yet thought this deeply in some cases.
Use this moment to move in the right general direction, and more will emerge once you’ve written through the chapter to this point.
If something you wrote stands out as more resonant, circle it, and let’s wrap up at number five.
Minute Five/Number Five: What happened afterward?
Not only do honest endings create a lasting impact, but they move the reader from one chapter to another. If you completely resolve everything the reader is concerned about or interested in, you might be done with the book.
So let’s not take this so far that the writing stops or the content becomes unrealistic. Which is great news, because that means you don’t have to tell your whole story to be done with this story.
Move your pencil to number five, write “What happened afterward?” and we’ll map out our ending.
[Timer starts]
What happened on the other side of this learning or realization or lightbulb moment?
What came with that key moment?
New beliefs to foster? Concerns I’d been ignoring but couldn’t any longer?
What part of that initial pain point was resolved?
What still hurt?
What questions had been answered?
What new questions were raised?
What happened after?
[Timer stops]
Now, shake all of your muscles out again and start to shift out of the meditative space we’ve been in.
You should now be able to re-write or type up a basic five-point outline from what we’ve circled here:
Where your attention was at the beginning of the story, related to the topic of the chapter.
Things you had to overcome on your way toward embracing, or at least understanding, the topic of the chapter.
The core understanding or teaching moment of the chapter.
The moment that grounded you to that teaching.
What shifted in or for you by the end of the story—and where that moves the reader’s attention for the next chapter.
While you absolutely can just tell a story, free-writing from your guts the thing that is on the surface and wanting to be told. this outline helps you tell that story to a reader for a purpose.
So check in with yourself one more time: Is this the a chapter you’d like to write? Is this the way you’d like to tell the story?
If you met all of those objectives in this chapter, would you be satisfied with the outcome? Satisfied enough to keep drafting into the next chapter?
Are you inspired to start filling in the gaps between these five points to start seeing the chapter come together?
If so, you have found your objectives. The work now will be to write toward each of them until you have a draft that you can read and revise.
In this case, we’ve mapped out the bones of the core story for the chapter. Depending on the kind of content you’re writing, you might have room to teach directly in and around those moments, or you might want to create more emphasis with story details alone.
If what you outlined here doesn’t feel resonant yet at all, take a break, come back, and run the exercise again.
See what changes, what evolves, what emerges.
If you still can’t get traction after that, or if you’re excited to expand from here and don’t know how, let’s book a free thirty-minute checkpoint to get you moving.
I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
Thanks for creating this space with me today. Whether or not you’re ready to dive into writing just yet, remember that the best authors show up fully, just as they are. That’s all it takes—and you're already doing it.
Be sure to subscribe on Substack or wherever you listen to podcasts to catch every coaching moment to come. And when more of your book is ready to emerge, the space we made today will be here waiting for you.
And so will I.
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