Holy crap! My brain is overflowing with knowledge. David Farland's Million Dollar Outline has more information in it than I can possibly consume in a single reading. I've made bookmarks and highlighted passages which require a second pass, just to absorb the total wealth of knowledge and information provided.This is a great book, and one I recommend to anyone serious about improving his or her craft. Normally I wouldn't have picked up this book. It's cover looks a little cheesy, the "Million Dol...

Lots of useful advice for writers. I'm not following all of it, since I'm writing for my own tastes rather than focusing on what the audience wants. But I do want to please the folks in my narrow niche so I'm paying attention. Farland did inspire me to scrap the original opening of my work-in-progress for one that better fits what the book's become.

I wrote pages of notes from this book as I continue to try and improve my own writing. It goes through the top selling books and films and breaks down aspects that are common to them - e.g. the emotional draw, the mystery to be solved. Plus there's a great list of literary plot devices - timebombs, the crucible of setting, reversals, conflict, spectacle and more. I particularly enjoyed the discussion between Spielberg & Lucas on Indiana Jones and how they figured out the story.

I took nearly a year to read, but well worth it. This how to book on assembling an outline for your novel gave many poignant and useful ideas on how to make an outline that will lay down the bones of your story and actually HELP you in writing the first draft of your novel.Has anyone else had the feeling that reading a book on a kindle takes longer than an actual paper book does? It seems that way to me.

I found this book so insightful. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to write for publication (even if you're not a plotter, there's great information here).

Book didn't really live up to my expectations. Tons of references to movies, which didn't really fit with writing book outlines, in my opinion. I found a few nuggets of good, helpful information so I didn't feel it was a total waste of my time, but it wasn't what I expected. Also, there was a reference to what women look for in men (re: characterization), to the effect of "polls say women want this, but what they really want is this", and I found it rather insulting. It was probably just a phras...

Love this book! For a book with Outlines in the title, I learned much more about the mechanics of how and why some stories work better than others. The actual outlining portion was a mere chapter at the end. However, everything you learn up to that point gets poured into that outline and makes it shine. Can't wait to try this method to spruce up my current WIP.This is definitely a book I can see myself reading several times and absorbing something new with each read.

Great insight on creating captivating stories and characters. Contains about a million typos, which can be distracting (and I'm really not sure how that was even allowed to happen) but helpful nonetheless.

Wow, what a mixed bag.There are parts of Million Dollar Outlines that are so good that I want to recommend it to every writer I know, but also parts that are so bad I'd be embarrassed to make that recommendation.First, I guess, I should start with content warnings. Because, yes, this *book about writing* requires content warnings. ???!!!!CW: extreme violence. For some reason, out of every book ever written, David Farland uses incredibly explicit crime fiction as his example. WHY.CW: sexual abuse...

Outlines are, in fact, only one aspect of what this how-to-write book covers. It does concentrate on the big picture, like what emotion appeals work for what audiences, story structure, building (and orchestrating) characters, what sorts of conflicts are involved, and many other useful things.

First rate book on writing to sell your work. Goes through tried and true market trends and helps to give your writing precision focus like a laser guided missile to reach down the chimneys of your intended audience.

This is the year I'm going to start working seriously on my fiction, and that's the mindset I had as I read this book. In some sense, it's impossible to tell how helpful it will be until 10 years from now when I have a career (or don't) and can see how the advice I took (or didn't) helped (or hurt). For now, the best I can do is say what seems useful.Farland's approach is, for lack of a better word, mercenary. I'm usually pretty far from the "special snowflake" kind of person who sees writing as...

I watch the YouTube series of lectures given by Brandon Sanderson at Utah uni. He took over the course from David Farland a few years ago.Farland’s writing books are always a good read. At that point I recognized that reading a formed story that conforms to Feralt’s plotting outline might be a type of emotional exercise that allows us to handle stress.(Kindle Locations 270-271). And this is why some people are bored, and some captivated by the same story; people are different and they have diffe...

A writing book that actually helped flesh out a project I'm working on. That's a first.

I found a lot of the book familiar, as Farland uses much of the material in his Daily Kick e-mails. However, it's useful to read it all together rather than in bite-size chunks. The best part, in my opinion, was the appendix -- both because I hadn't seen the information before and because the discussion of Indiana Jones (né Smith) was amazing. I definitely found this book helpful and will revisit it, I'm sure.

A bit jumbled, and some of the ideas feel more dated or less valuable than others. But the core insights into finding the conflicts that drive a character, and plotting those conflicts out over the arc of a story, are worth the purchase price.

Whether you're a casual writer looking for ways to improve, or a serious writer wanting to strengthen skills you already have, this book is a must. I've been wanting to take a novel writing class from David Farland for years, and wanted to learn to be a more disciplined outliner for even longer than that, so finally reading his Million Dollar Outlines was a perfect synthesis. Not only did the book fit the bill for thinking through and outlining a story, it went far beyond that. David also includ...

I prefer to outline books so this was something of a find as I got it on Audibles New Year's Resolution Sale. Farland has many interesting point and explores his subject matter from many different angles. As a audio book I'm not sure I got the full experience or all of the author's advice. I am considering getting this in hard copy and reading it while I listen to audio version to get the full experience. So all I can say is that if you like to write and prefer to outline, check this out.

This writing book had some great ideas and suggestions for better outlining stories before an author begins the drafting stage. The author has worked in Hollywood, so his premise was how to write riveting, inspiring, life-changing stories and characters that can sell well in Hollywood and to publishers before an author even writes a word of their story. His outlining plan is very detailed, and has some great suggestions I want to put into action in my own storymaking. I felt it was definitely wo...

This title is a misnomer. There is a small section on outlines (which doesn't even include an outline) but the majority of the book is how to market your idea and how to make sure it is marketable. That information is pretty basic and straightforward, but it is also probably true and subtly often missed. I think this would be a useful book for someone that is intent of figuring out why there books are not selling, especially since there is a lot of hints as to why some books are not even read by...