Some writers like to use an outline to formulate ideas onto paper while others avoid an outline like the plague. If you’re just starting out as a nonfiction writer, the most important thing is not to feel like you have to fit into someone else’s box. Allow your brain to write as it wants to—outline or not. Until you learn to unleash the creative juices in your psyche as part of your individual and very unique writing process, give yourself the freedom to write in whatever way works best for you.
 
As you begin to acquire published credits, however, you’ll discover that the first thing many nonfiction editors or agents want to see is an outline. They want to know exactly where your manuscript is going and how it’s going to get there. They can’t be passing around your entire middle grade nonfiction book for everyone to read in preparation for editorial meetings. They want an outline. Clear. Concise. Complete. No secrets. No surprises. And no frills.
 
I remember one of the first times an editor requested an outline. I gulped. I had pitched them my nonfiction idea for a middle grade chapter book. How in the world was I supposed to know what was going to happen in Chapter 4? That would come to me as I wrote, right? Maybe so, but the editor required an outline. This request forced me to sit down and pinpoint the progression of my manuscript from Point A to Point Z with every single step in between. It took me three months of solid research and careful thought to prepare that outline.

The result? A 242-page nonfiction book for kids that has now been reprinted in its second edition, A Kid’s Guide to African American History (Chicago Review Press). You can buy it in stores and museums across the country. Even the Smithsonian sells it! Without taking the time to prepare that outline, however, I wonder if it would have been such a success.
 
Even a 32-page nonfiction picture book benefits from an outline. I used to just write picture books and let it flow. Not anymore. Now I map out the plot line and structure before I ever write the first word. An outline helps guarantee that the internal structure of my manuscript is solid.
 
For longer nonfiction projects, I usually have several outlines. I prepare a short, one-page outline to keep the overall scope of my project front and center. I create a 3-D outline by placing file folders in a pocket folder—one for each section or chapter—and tuck in ideas and information as I go. I maintain a growing working outline on my computer that functions as my research assistant.

​As I note ideas, facts, or information on this outline, I also type in footnotes so I can easily find the source of that research. When I wrote my newest nonfiction for middle grades, Jane Austen for Kids, my shorter, chapter outline was 8 pages, about one page per chapter. My working outline was 32 pages long where I kept more detailed notes. Building a working outline makes the writing process easier in countless ways. Try it and see!

            Anybody who has been writing for a while has been hit with the agent questions. It’s whispered and chatted about at conferences, workshops, and in critique groups. The questions sound like this:

                                                                                               “Do you have an agent?”
                                                                                          “How did you get your agent?
                                                                                  “Can you tell me how to get an agent?”
                                                                                           “Can I contact your agent?”

           A good agent is worth her weight in toner ink and paper! She can negotiate a contract, critique a manuscript, and answer fifty emails all before her cappuccino cools. That’s why everybody wants an amazing agent. But--and this is a very big BUT –- an agent is only as good as the writer she is representing. To get an excellent agent you need to be an excellent writer.

            New writers often believe that getting an agent is going to solve all their writing problems. The agent will edit their manuscripts, sell their work, and get them on the The New York Times Best Seller list. It’s a lovely dream, but it is not reality.   Experienced writers WITH agents will tell you that it is no guarantee that their manuscript will sell. If the editors are not looking for a book about three-toed sloths and vampire bats – it’s not going to sell. What an agent can do is help you to navigate the market trends and get your work in front of editors who are looking for manuscripts in your content area. They can also be your biggest cheerleader.

            BUT you may not be ready to look for an agent if you are not a polished, experienced writer. You only have one chance to make a first impression. You want it to be a good one. This is a check list that can help you evaluate whether or not you are ready for an agent.

1. Do you belong to an active critique group?

            This is probably the single best thing you can do to prepare for an agent. Find a group who will tell you what is WRONG with your manuscript. You want people who are honest and will help you learn how to improve. And every manuscript can use improvement.

2. Do you have more than one polished manuscript or proposal available?

            That’s right – more than one! Agents often want to see three polished picture book manuscripts. If you are writing for middle grade or young adult you need a full proposal and some additional ideas already in the development stages. Most agents want to work with you on multiple projects and you need to show that you are at that stage with your work.

3. Have you attended conferences and had professional critiques of your work?

            Before you send your work out to an agent – get it evaluated by other professional writers. They can tell you if your story is ready or if it needs more work. And listen to their advice! Too often new writers discount the advice of other writers. If an experienced writer gives you suggestions for revision – consider it a gift and go revise! Negative feedback is not meant to hurt you-- it is meant to make you a stronger writer and build a better manuscript.

4. Have you had work published previously?

            Have you published magazine articles or had work in professional journals? Have you done work-for-hire and learned how to partner with an editor? This can be a big plus when you are a nonfiction writer looking for an agent. Don’t discount the value of publishing in a variety of venues including hosted blogs and professional journals. Working with editors to hone your writing will be a huge advantage as you look for that perfect agent and those book contracts.
           
            These are just suggestions for what you should do before you look for an agent. There are other things like contests, e-zines, and mentorships that can also help you reach the writing level that is necessary to attract a good agent.
           
         Remember there is no substitute for hard work and lots of revision. Your manuscripts should be as perfect as possible before submitting to an agent. And then – if she is a fantastic agent – be prepared to some more revisions!

              Good luck!
           
 
 
           
 
 

I have a writing coach—in fact, I have a number of them. Some work on retainer for an $18 one-time payment; many of them work for free. They are available day or night, weekday or weekend, holiday or workday. I hire my coaches at the bookstore or library. They live between the covers of carefully scrutinized children's books. My coaches are also called mentor texts.

A mentor text is a well-written book that gives you the structure, the language, the arc that you could use for your own work. It is especially useful when you hit a wall. I have a fat folder of research on an unsung, feisty American woman with lots of kid appeal. But where to start? What to put in and what to leave out? Should I use chronological, flash-back, anecdotal structure? I was stuck.
 
Then I came across Kathleen Krull’s Dolley Madison: Parties Can Be Patriotic! (Bloomsbury, 2015) at my library. A quick scan of the first page and I wanted to yell, “EUREKA!” I had found the coach to lead me out of my literary dead end. Kathleen Krull readily came home with me and has stayed for the last couple of weeks.
 
Dolley Madison is part of Krull’s series on Women Who Broke the Rules. That’s also an apt description of the heroine of my current work-in-progress. Studying the way Krull skillfully wrote Dolley Madison is like having her seated beside my desk, patiently tutoring me. Here are some of the things Kathleen Krull has taught me so far:

1. Use a topic sentence with details--but not always. Note how this topic sentence is followed by the quick fire of four telling details. 

     All the rules in the new country of America were stacked against women. They were like property, first belonging to their fathers, then their husbands. They couldn’t attend college. No respectable jobs were open to them. They couldn’t vote or have any role in government.

2. Use a relevant quotation to hammer home your point. The paragraph above ended with “In fact America’s FF (Founding Fathers) believed women in politics would be unnatural— ‘the world turned upside down.’”

3. When facts are skimpy, frame them with period details you know to be true. Instead of stating the bare bones fact that Dolley’s first husband and her child died of yellow fever in 1793, Krull fleshes it out this way: 

     Then the deadly yellow fever reached town in 1793. Spread by mosquitoes, the horrible disease killed one of every five people in Philadelphia. The victims, alas, included Dolley’s new baby and her husband.

4. Know your theme before you start and refer to it often. Krull’s first sentence is “Dolley Payne was born with extra zip.” The last two sentences of the first chapter are: “Good thing she had a third secret weapon working for her. That extra zip.” In another chapter, “Would Dolley come to the president’s house…and help? Would she! Dolley jumped in with her usual zest.” The last chapter tells us that in retirement at Montpelier, after a tumultuous and popular reign as First Lady, Dolley “was still the hostess with the mostest.”

5. Use emotional details. Emotion is what makes us connect to characters, even historical ones. With deft strokes, Krull includes heart touching details that bring Dolley, an 18th century woman to 21st century life. Here are three of them:
​

• About the relationship with her shy husband, Krull writes that during rare separations, the couple “wrote mushy letters twice a day. In private they teased and played like children…sometimes [she] even hoisted him on her back to prove that she was stronger.”

• Raised plain as a Quaker, Dolley was “read out” when she married a non-Quaker. The day of her wedding, she wore a ring and necklace James Madison gave her. “How delicious to wear jewelry for the first time!”
• As first lady, Dolley was fun, festive, and kind. A guest at the president’s house was so flustered when she called him by name that he spilled his coffee and tried to stuff the cup into his pocket. “Dolley simply called for more coffee and started praising the man’s ‘excellent mother’ until he completely relaxed.”

Any of Kathleen Krull’s many titles are a master class in nonfiction writing. Stop by your library or bookstore and invite her over. She may be just the coach you need.  

 

​You might think you’re organized, but are you really, really organized?
​
I thought that I had a great filing system. It's one that I had been using for years.
Then, I read my friend  Nancy I. Sander’s blog on writing journals. Previously, I always began each project with a new folder where I stuffed every slip of paper, note, magazine article, and photos on my current project. 

​My materials were together, but they were a mess. I was continually looking for a line, phrase, page, etc. that I knew I’d written, but couldn’t get my hands on.

​I assumed that this was just part of the creative process. It never occurred to me, until reading Nancy's first post, that there was a much, much better way to keep track of your work. I’m embarrassed to say that I have actually spoken at conferences on organization and writing. Yikes!

​Nancy is truly the master of organization. Imagine this - a Table of Contents! And notes!  ​

More importantly, imagine being able to  know exactly where your images, quotes, resources, reference tools,  opening and closing lines, etc. are!
Nancy explains her system in a series of seven posts. After these first few, each one will include organizational skills that every writer needs to know, right down to putting a sticker on the upper right-hand corner of your journal’s Table of Content since you will be flipping back to it so often.