Book Outline Prompt: Chapter by Chapter Plan From Your Idea

Prompt

Act as a developmental editor and book coach who helps first time authors plan a book before drafting. You build the plan from the author's own idea and notes and you do not write the book for them.

Inputs:
- Book type: fiction genre or nonfiction category: [BookType]
- The idea in a few sentences: [Premise]
- Who the book is for and what they want: [TargetReader]
- My notes: stories, research, scenes, lists, or chapters already drafted: [AuthorNotes]
- Two or three books I see as comparable, with what I like or dislike about each: [ComparableBooks]
- Target length in words: [TargetLength]
- Hours per week I can write, and my deadline: [WritingTime]

Generate:
1. A reader promise in two sentences and a one line pitch, both built from Premise and TargetReader.
2. A structure choice with a reason. For fiction, map the turning points (opening, inciting incident, midpoint, crisis, climax, resolution). For nonfiction, pick a structure such as problem to solution, step by step framework, or chronological, and say why it fits TargetReader.
3. A chapter by chapter outline: chapter number, working title, the chapter's goal for the reader, key points or scenes taken from AuthorNotes, the ending hook or takeaway, and an estimated word count. The word counts must add up to TargetLength.
4. A gap list: chapters with little or no material in AuthorNotes, with two questions per gap for me to answer. Do not fill gaps with invented stories or facts.
5. A positioning note: how this book differs from ComparableBooks, based only on what I wrote about them.
6. A writing schedule from WritingTime: weekly word target with the math, plus a revision buffer before the deadline.
7. A first session plan: which chapter to draft first and why.

Rules:
- Keep my voice. Quote my notes where they show it.
- Never invent statistics, quotes, or facts about real books or people.
- Fiction prompts get scenes; nonfiction prompts get points and examples from my notes.

Instructions

Replace every [bracket] with your own idea, notes, and schedule. Works on ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Use the outline to plan and then draft the chapters in your own words.

Generated Output

This image was generated using the prompt above.

Book Outline Prompt: Chapter by Chapter Plan From Your Idea - Result

Examples

Example Input

BookType: Practical nonfiction, how to guide
Premise: A plain guide for first time organizers who want to start a community garden on a vacant lot, from the first neighbor meeting to the first harvest. I ran one for 8 years.
TargetReader: Neighbors with no nonprofit experience who have a lot in mind and are nervous about land access, money, and conflict.
AuthorNotes: Story of our first meeting with 6 people in a library room. How we got a 3 year land use agreement with the city. Our plot rules and the fight over the compost pile. Raised beds vs in ground after soil testing. Fundraising with a plant sale and a hardware store donation. Burnout in year 3 and how we split roles. Water access took 7 months. Kids' garden day. Drafted: intro and a chapter on picking a site.
ComparableBooks: A big gardening reference book: great on plants, nothing on organizing people. A nonprofit startup handbook: thorough but too formal for neighbors.
TargetLength: 45,000 words
WritingTime: 6 hours a week, draft done in 6 months

Example Output

1. READER PROMISE
You can turn an empty lot into a working community garden without nonprofit experience. This book walks you from the first neighbor meeting to the first harvest, with the people problems handled as carefully as the soil.
Pitch: The organizing guide for neighbors who want a garden, not a gardening encyclopedia.

2. STRUCTURE
Step by step, in the order an organizer lives it. Your reader is nervous and needs to know what comes next, so chronology doubles as a checklist.

3. CHAPTER OUTLINE (45,000 words)
Intro: Why a garden is a people project (drafted) | 2,500
1. Find Your First Six: the library room meeting, who to invite, a first agenda | 4,000 | Takeaway: you need six, not sixty.
2. Pick a Site (drafted) | 4,500 | Hook: the lot looks perfect, but who owns it?
3. Land Access: how you got a 3 year agreement with the city, what to ask for | 5,000
4. Test Before You Dig: soil testing, raised beds vs in ground | 4,000
5. Water: the 7 month wait and how to plan for it | 3,500
6. Money Without a Budget: plant sale, asking a hardware store | 4,000
7. Rules People Will Follow: plot rules, the compost pile fight | 4,500
8. Opening Day and the First Season: kids' garden day | 4,000
9. Avoid Burnout: year 3 and splitting roles | 4,500
10. Keep It Going: handing off leadership | 4,500
Total: 45,000

4. GAPS
Chapter 8: one event in your notes. What did the first planting day look like? What went wrong in season one?
Chapter 10: no material yet. Have you handed off any role? What would a successor need to know?
Chapter 6: one story. Did any ask fail, and what did you learn?

5. POSITIONING
Unlike the gardening reference, this covers people and process. Unlike the nonprofit handbook, it speaks to neighbors in plain words.

6. SCHEDULE
Drafted: intro and Chapter 2, about 7,000 words if both are complete. Remaining: 38,000 words.
Drafting window: 22 weeks (6 months is about 26 weeks, minus a 4 week revision buffer).
38,000 / 22 = about 1,730 words a week, or about 290 words per writing hour across 6 hours.

7. FIRST SESSION
Start with Chapter 3, Land Access. It is your strongest story, and it is the reader's biggest fear.