How to Outline a Novel

Live attendance is not required: enrollees can watch the recording at any time after the workshop!

How often have you been stuck staring at the first blank page, feeling too overwhelmed to start writing? Starting to write a novel can seem so daunting — especially when you you just have some ideas floating around in your head, and you don’t know where the plot or character arcs are going.

But writing your novel doesn’t have to be so intimidating! The secret weapon to starting and finishing a successful novel, used by big and small novelists around the world, is the outline.

Creating an outline for your novel before you begin — or even after you’ve begun! — helps you plan how your plot will arc, how your characters will develop, identify your strongest ideas, perfect your pacing, and give you a roadmap you can refer back to to help you stay on track as you write.

Join author Stuart Jaffe in this hands-on workshop where he’ll show you techniques for creating an effective outline that will guide your novel to success. Having outlined and written over sixty novels and hundreds of short stories, Stuart will show you exactly how he does it, from idea, to structure, to outline, to writing the first words of prose.

This workshop will be a deep dive into setting up the right foundation for your novel, so that you don’t waste time on mistakes, false starts, and dead ends, while you stay focused on the end goal... writing those two wonderful words: The End!

Zoom schedule

Everyone enrolled in this webinar will receive a copy of the recording afterwards, so you can review it later in case you missed it.

• Saturday August 17, 2024 1:00pm US Central time — 1 hour 30 minutes

How this workshop works

This workshop is a live Zoom webinar. Sign in from anywhere in the world and participate live as the instructor conducts the workshop, with time for Q&A at the end.

Questions about this class?

We’re happy to answer any questions you might have!

• Contact us and a real person will get back to you ASAP.

About Stuart Jaffe

Stuart Jaffe is the madman behind the Max Porter paranormal mysteries, the Nathan K thrillers, the Ridnight mysteries, the Parallel Society novels, The Malja Chronicles, the Bluesman, Founders, Real Magic, and much more. He trained in martial arts for over a decade until a knee injury ended that practice. Now, he plays lead guitar in a local blues band, the Bootleggers, and enjoys life on a small farm in rural North Carolina.