Nonfiction Book Outline Template
A chapter outline, a narrative spine, and the register that says which chapters have nothing behind them yet.
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Chapter Register
[Working title], [genre]
What each chapter has behind it
| Items assigned | — |
| Of which primary, not read | — |
| Raw words of material | — |
| Words of material per planned word | — |
| Largest single item as a share | — |
The chapters that fail the floors
| Fewer than two primary items | — |
| Under 1.5 words of material per planned word | — |
| Their share of the manuscript | — |
| Words you draft before reaching the first | — |
The number this register exists to produce
Not a list of thin chapters. The count of words you write before you reach one, because an outline entry with nothing behind it reads exactly like an outline entry with 43,600 words of transcript behind it.
The opposite problem
Chapters holding several times their own length in material, with the median across the book beside them. That is the chapter that comes in at double length and pushes the manuscript over.
Every gap, dated
Lead time, the week you reach the chapter, and the week you have to file by. Sorted by deadline, which is rarely the same order as by chapter.
The two schedules
The draft on its own, the draft with every request filed now, and the draft with each request filed on the day you arrive at the chapter that needs it. The gap between the last two is the finding.
Sasquatch Books calls the annotated table of contents the crux of the whole exercise, and says what it settles: the extent of your content, how you will order the information, what makes a complete manuscript. New Mexico asks for the same list plus a word count. All of it is about the writing. None of it asks what material is behind each chapter, and that is the question this pack answers.
So every interview, record, filing, dataset, site visit and reading note gets assigned to one chapter. On the worked book that is 50 items and 318,500 raw words against 13 chapters and 92,000 planned words, and five items assign to no chapter at all. Then each chapter carries a ratio: words of material per planned word. Four chapters fall under it, and they are the last four in the book, holding 31.2% of the manuscript against 0.5% of the research. You reach the first after 63,300 words.
That is the failure an outline cannot show, because those four paragraphs read exactly like the chapter with 43,600 words behind it. The register turns it into eight gaps with lead times, and the lead times into dates. Drafting at the author's own 4,500 words a week, the book is 20.4 weeks. File all eight now and it stays 20.4. File each on arrival and it is 51.4, with 31 weeks of the difference sitting in the filing order.
What's in the pack
Chapter Register
One row per chapter with what it argues, its items, its material, its ratio and the week you reach it.
Research Register
One row per item, primary or secondary, sized in words or rows, assigned to exactly one chapter.
Research Gap Register
Every missing thing with a lead time, the week you reach its chapter, and a filing deadline.
Material Coverage Note
The worked arithmetic end to end, from 50 items to the four chapters that would have stopped the book.
Gap Schedule Note
The two orders priced in weeks, which is where the 20.4 against 51.4 comes from.
Structural Outline
The chapter list, with one falsifiable argument per chapter instead of a paragraph of description.
Narrative Spine Note
The claim chain and its dependencies, which says which chapters can move, be cut, or cannot shift at all.
Assignment prompts
Five passes: assign, find the empty chapters, find the over-supplied ones, date the gaps, build the chain.
The floors, written down
Two primary items and 1.5 words of material per planned word, applied to every chapter rather than the thin ones.
How it works
- 1
Open or download
Edit with AI installs the pack as a private Space and asks for your numbered chapters, everything you have gathered, and how many words a week you actually draft. Download gives you the blank files, no account.
- 2
Assign the material
Every item to exactly one chapter, sized in words or in rows, marked primary, secondary, or unassigned if it fits none. This register counts whole items; verbatim quotes and their clearance status are a research and citation register's job.
- 3
Read the ratio
Words of material per planned word, per chapter. Under 1.5, or fewer than two primary items, and the chapter cannot be written yet whatever its paragraph says.
- 4
Date every gap
Each missing thing gets a lead time, then the week you reach its chapter, then the week you have to file by. That column is the only output you will look at twice.
Frequently asked questions
What does it need from me?
A numbered chapter list with a word target and one sentence on what each chapter argues. Everything already gathered, sized roughly, including the folder of PDFs with unhelpful names. And how many words a week you actually draft, measured rather than intended, because that figure is what turns the gaps into dates.
What format are the downloaded files?
Four Word documents and three CSV sheets, zipped. The documents open in Word, Pages and Google Docs; the sheets open in Excel, Numbers and Sheets. Nothing needs converting. Add a PDF query string to the download if you want to send somebody the schedule rather than fill it in.
What does Edit with AI actually do?
It installs this pack as a private Space, then runs the pass that costs the most by hand: assigning every item to a chapter and counting what each one holds. You get the chapter register, the exposed chapters with their share of the manuscript, and a filing deadline on every gap.
Is a ratio really a fair test of a chapter?
On its own, no, which is why there are two floors and a third column. Primary items catch the chapter built entirely from other people's books. The ratio catches the empty one. The largest-item share catches chapter 7, which passed both floors while resting 87.0% on a single interview.
My chapters are mostly datasets, not transcripts. Does this work?
Yes, and the register handles it explicitly. A dataset has no word count and is not therefore weak, so it counts as a primary item, its rows are recorded separately, and the ratio says it excluded them. Working the data itself is the data story analysis pack.
What if a gap is a records request that never comes back?
Then it has no bounded lead time, it is marked unbounded rather than estimated, and its chapter needs a shape that survives without it. Filing, tracking and appealing the request itself is a records request pack, not this.
Is any of this free?
The download is free and needs no account: the real documents and sheets, blank, as Word and CSV. Edit with AI creates a free account and fills them in from your own chapters. Pitching the book is the book proposal pack, and sequencing an edit letter afterwards is a revision plan. Formatting the finished pages for each recipient's own rules is a submission pack.
Find the chapter that would have stopped the book
Download the blank Chapter Register, Research Register and Research Gap Register as Word and CSV, or have River assign your own material and date every gap.
Edit with AI