Sterling & Stone's 40-Sentence Outline

A couple of weeks ago, one of my best friends attended a writer's conference in Austin.

Her name is Lynn Bonnie Johnston, and she's not just a fiction writer who's been writing for more than 17 years.

She's a writing coach, and she has a brilliant analytic mind. Every time she reads a book about writing fiction, she analyzes what she's learned, use the methods herself, and then often tweak them.

Now, during that conference in Austin, Sterling & Stone were on the stage and talked about their 40-sentence outline. They use it for all their best-selling fiction.

Naturally, the audience asked for examples, but the problem was that once they'd made their 40-sentence outline, they would add more to it, and the 40-sentences ended up completely different with a lot more text.

Bonnie understood what they did, though, and created something better than an example to learn from.

She created a template that everyone can use to come up with their own 40-sentence outlines and start writing.

And then Sterling & Stone did a live video with Bonnie, talking about how to use the template.

They shared both items with their list, and I asked Bonnie if it was okay to share with others, and she said yes.

So here you are - the 40-sentence outline template by Bonnie Johnston

And the video by Johnny B. Truant, Sean Platt, and Bonnie Johnston that goes with it.