I’ve mentioned this here before, but not in too much detail. When I launched this blog, I was nearing the end of one 30-day novel outline program for my book with a working title Sarah. With that novel outline (which finished up this past Saturday), I followed the plan detailed in First Draft in 30 Days. I’m currently outlining another novel, Three Weeks, very loosely following the guidance in Book in a Month.

Obviously I’m not going to be able to accurately compare the two methods, given that I’ve heavily adapted the current program to fit my own needs, working style, and comfort level (as mentioned in a previous post, I actually expect to finish the current outline in about a two-week period overall instead of the planned 30 days).

I think the biggest lesson of all of this is that, the more comfortable you get with the outlining process (this is my third novel outline), the quicker you’ll get through the process – you sort of streamline things in your own way. While it’s not the takeaway I was hoping to pull from this experiment, it’s a good one, and I’m happy with the progress and the fact that the experiment forced me to work productively on my projects rather than just telling myself “someday I’m going to start working on this novel idea.”

If you want to read my original review of each of these books, they’re currently published at All Book Marketing, with some details on why I wanted to test the programs in the first place.