How to outline a nonfiction book: five structures and a chapter template

Why the outline matters more than the draft

A good outline does three jobs. It proves the book has enough in it to be a book. It shows you, before you write, which chapters you are weakest on. And it means you never sit down to a blank page: every writing session starts with a chapter you have already planned.

You need two things from earlier stages: the reader profile from Stage 1 and the one-sentence promise from Stage 2. The structure you pick should be the shortest path from the reader's starting point to that promise.

Step 1: Get every chapter idea out of your head

Before choosing a structure, dump everything. Write each idea, story, framework, mistake and question on its own line or sticky note. Three prompts help:

• The workshop prompt. If you had to teach this as a one-day workshop, what would the sessions be?
• The client prompt. What do you tell every new client in the first three meetings?
• The question prompt. What are the ten questions readers in your profile ask most?

Keep a "parking lot" for ideas that do not fit. The Scribe Method's outline chapter recommends exactly this: some of those ideas find a home later, and some become your next book.

Step 2: Choose a structure

Here are five structures that cover most professional nonfiction. Each sample table of contents is an example we wrote, not a real book.

1. Steps or framework

Use it when the reader needs to do something in order, and you have a method you teach the same way each time. Watch out for chapters that are too uneven: one step that takes a page next to another that needs 8,000 words.

Sample: a book for owners preparing to sell a family business

1. Introduction: The sale starts two years before the sale
2. Step 1: Decide what you actually want from the exit
3. Step 2: Get your numbers buyer-ready
4. Step 3: Make yourself unnecessary
5. Step 4: Build the team (lawyer, banker, accountant)
6. Step 5: Run a quiet market test
7. Step 6: Negotiate terms, not just price
8. Step 7: Plan your first year after
9. Conclusion: The owner who sold well

2. Problem, then solution

Use it when readers do not yet agree they have the problem, or misunderstand its cause. The first third persuades; the rest teaches. Watch out for a problem section so long that readers quit before the help arrives.

Sample: a book for hospital administrators about nurse turnover

1. Introduction: The hidden cost on every unit
2. Part 1, the problem: Why nurses really leave
3. Why raises and bonuses have not worked
4. What the exit interviews miss
5. Part 2, the solution: The charge nurse is the job
6. Scheduling as a retention tool
7. The first 90 days on the unit
8. Measuring what matters
9. Conclusion: One unit, one year

3. Story-led

Use it when your experience is the proof, and readers will learn best by living through it with you. Each chapter is a period or event, and each ends with the lesson it taught. Watch out for stories that serve you more than the reader. Keep only the parts that teach.

Sample: a founder's book on surviving a near-bankruptcy

1. Introduction: Ninety days of cash
2. The year everything worked (and why that was the problem)
3. The call from the bank
4. Telling the team the truth
5. The customers who stayed
6. Cutting without cutting the future
7. The turnaround nobody noticed
8. What I run differently now
9. Conclusion: Your ninety days

4. Principles or rules

Use it when your expertise is a set of beliefs or habits that apply in many situations, rather than a sequence. Each chapter stands alone, so readers can dip in. Watch out for principles that overlap. If two chapters could swap examples, merge them.

Sample: a book for new partners at professional services firms

1. Introduction: Nobody trains you to be a partner
2. Rule 1: Your calendar is your strategy
3. Rule 2: Sell to people you already serve
4. Rule 3: Say the hard thing in the first meeting
5. Rule 4: Hire for the client you want next
6. Rule 5: Price the outcome, not the hours
7. Rule 6: Leave before you are tired
8. Conclusion: The partner you meant to be

5. Questions

Use it when your readers arrive with predictable questions, often in a stressful moment, and want answers fast. Each chapter title is a question in the reader's words. Watch out for a book that reads like an FAQ page. Order the questions as the reader would meet them, and tell a story in each answer.

Sample: a book for adult children managing a parent's care

1. Introduction: The phone call you did not expect
2. How do I know it is time?
3. Who decides, and how do we talk about it?
4. Can we afford this?
5. Home care, assisted living or memory care?
6. What paperwork do we need now?
7. How do I take care of myself too?
8. Conclusion: The questions get easier

Step 3: Set your table of contents

Put your chapters in order and give each one a one or two sentence thesis: the single point the reader should take away. The Scribe Method suggests 5 to 15 chapters as a good range for most books. Test the order by reading only the theses from top to bottom. They should read like a short, convincing argument.

• If two theses say nearly the same thing, merge the chapters.
• If a thesis needs "and," it may be two chapters.
• If a chapter has no clear thesis, it may belong in the parking lot.

Step 4: Outline each chapter

Now give every chapter the same skeleton. This is the book outline template we recommend. Keep it to bullet points.

The "open questions" line is easy to skip and worth keeping. It turns into your research list for Stage 4.

Use the free outline builder

If you would rather fill this in step by step, the free outline builder on this site walks you through picking a structure, setting your table of contents and outlining each chapter with the same template. Your work is saved in your own browser, not sent to us, so you can come back to it on the same device.

How to know the outline is done

• Every chapter has a thesis, a hook and at least three supporting points.
• Reading the theses in order makes a clear case for your one-sentence promise.
• Nothing in the book is there only because you find it interesting.
• Your weakest chapter is obvious, and you have a plan for its open questions.
• You could hand the outline to a colleague and they could explain the book back to you.

For chapter counts and lengths, see the Scribe Method's reference chapter on book chapters, which also explains when to group chapters into parts. You will turn chapter counts into word counts and a schedule in Stage 5.

Next: Stage 4, gather stories and research