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Craig Handley Outline | 5min
Published July 13, 2021 · 604 views on YouTube
Key takeaways
- Set an egg timer for two minutes and write a title plus a one-paragraph summary of the book before overthinking sets in.
- Use a second two-minute timer to brainstorm 12 to 16 topics the book will cover, without worrying about order.
- Use a third two-minute timer to put those topics into chapter order.
- Use a seven-minute timer to list four sub-topics under each chapter, producing a full outline.
- Record yourself talking through the outline on video, then hand the footage to a ghostwriter to turn into chapters.
How do you create a book outline quickly using the egg timer method?
Craig Handley’s method uses a series of timed writing sprints on an egg timer: two minutes to write a title and summary, two minutes to list 12 to 16 topics, two minutes to put those topics in order, and seven minutes to write four sub-topics under each chapter. The time pressure forces the analytical, second-guessing side of the brain to step aside so ideas come out fast.
Why does the timer matter for outlining a book?
According to Handley, the brain has a creative side and an analytical side, and the analytical side often interrupts the creative process with second-guessing (“what about this, what about that”), creating a loop where nothing gets done. Setting a short timer and forcing yourself to write under that pressure short-circuits the analytical brain and lets ideas flow.
What are the four timed steps in order?
- Two minutes — title and summary. Write a working title for the book and a paragraph describing what it’s about.
- Two minutes — list 12 to 16 topics. Write down every topic the book should cover, in any order, as fast as possible. Ending up with fewer (or more) than 16 is fine; the goal is to get ideas out of your head, not hit an exact number.
- Two minutes — put the topics in order. Arrange the topics from step 2 into the order the chapters will follow.
- Seven minutes — four sub-topics per chapter. For each chapter, write down four things you’ll talk about under it. Handley gives his own example of a “turnarounds” chapter with sub-topics like cash is king, stop paying certain bills, deciding who to fire, and what to keep.
How did Craig Handley turn his outline into a finished book?
After completing the outline, Handley set up a video camera pointed at his computer and talked through each chapter and its sub-topics on camera, since he already knew the material as a subject-matter expert. He then hired a ghostwriter who turned the video footage into written chapters, delivering one chapter per week. Handley edited each chapter closely before it was finalized. Using this process, he says he had the full book done in less than 18 weeks.
Full video transcript
I really like the being authentic piece. Um, Craig, the other thing I wanted you to touch on is you had a strategy for an outline or getting your outline out there. A lot of people get stuck on what they’re going to write, and so what I use for my book in order to get this out of my head — and I’ve got three other books that I’ve already created the outline on — one of my favorite ways in order to create the outline for the book is get yourself one of those egg timers, right?
And the first part of this process, if you have a pen you can write this down, it’s pretty easy. First part of this process is set the egg timer for two minutes. You have a left brain and a right brain, and your creative brain oftentimes gets held back by your analytic brain. Right, so you think, well, this is what I want to do, but then you bring the other side of your brain in and it goes, wait, wait, what about this, what about that, what about this, and you start questioning everything. You end up with this horrible loop and you end up not doing anything.
And so, um, and some people describe it in different ways. You know, they say, I play music when I’m trying to focus on creating my expense sheets or things like that, because they’re trying to shut off the hassle of the brain that kind of drives you down rabbit holes. So when you put this timer and this pressure and you just force yourself to do it, it actually psyches a lot.
So, um, and so the process here is to set an egg timer for two minutes. First step is come up with a title for your book and write out a paragraph as to what your book’s about, and you have two minutes to do that. And so if we were gonna do this live, we’d say, okay, go, we set the timer, and you’d have to say, okay, I’m going to write about this, and here’s kind of what it’s going to be about.
Then the second part of this process, again, set the egg timer for two minutes, and what I want you to do now is I want you to write out 12 to 16 topics that you’re going to cover in your book. Right, what are the 12 to 16 topics you’re going to cover? Go. And then you set the egg timer and you just start writing, and maybe you’ll only come up with eight, and that doesn’t mean that you’re wrong. I mean, there’s a saying in writing books that you niche to get rich, right? You know, you should be focused on what you’re going to tell people or teach people.
And so just say, okay, chapter — if you’re writing about your life, chapter one, you know, birth, chapter two, my younger years, chapter three, my teenagers — what are you gonna tell people about, what does your story entail? Right, if you were an addict and you were beating addiction, you know, you want to tell the story of how you became an addict and how you beat addiction. Right, so you want to talk about the different topics, you know, rehab, rehab didn’t work, rehab again. I don’t know what the topics are going to be — they’re in your head. If you set the egg timer for two minutes and you just write them all down, you’ll now start to have an outline.
Now the next thing you’re going to do is you’re going to put your 12 to 16 topics in order. Right, so just don’t think about what order they’re in when you’re writing them down, just spit them out of your head as fast as you can. Maybe you’ll come up with 20 and you can winnow that back to 16.
Is that the next — is that the next two minutes, to organize the topics? The next two minutes is organize your topics.
The last part of this process is a seven-minute timer on your egg timer, and on your seven-minute timer you want to write down four things you’re going to talk about under each chapter. So you’ve got a chapter — maybe it’s, you know, how I became an addict — what are the four topics that you’re going to cover in that chapter? You know, so for me, I talk about turnarounds, and, you know, if I’m talking about turnarounds in a business, maybe my four sub-topics in there are: cash is king, time to stop paying the bills, who can you fire, and what do you need to keep. And then from there — so that’s seven minutes.
From there you’ve got an outline of your book, and the way that I wrote my book is I actually took out a video camera and I put the camera on my computer, I turned it on, and then I literally talked about all of those things. I had all — I had to do was look at my chapter, look at the topics underneath it, and as an expert in business, I knew what the hell I was talking about, so I just started talking.
And then, for me, I hired a ghostwriter, and I had a ghostwriter take all of those videos and turn it into a book. Every chapter that got done by my ghostwriter, they’d send it to me weekly, and each week we’d complete a chapter. And so she would write — she’d send it to me, I did a lot of editing because I’m pretty particular about the way I wanted my story to sound, so I would have a lot of ink, you know, as far as the editing goes. I’d kick it back, she’d clean it up, and we were good to go for the next chapter. So ultimately, if I wrote, you know, 16 topics, I had my book done in less than 18 weeks.
That’s great, I love it. So I’m really seeing, you know, taking — doing what Craig’s doing, using our outlines that we’ve provided you, and then using the conversion AI to fill in the blanks there — I think is a great tool. So, yeah, so hopefully that’s helpful. Does anybody have any questions?