Learn to Outline Your Own Mystery Novel by Michael M Dickson

Michael M Dickson shares with us how was his experience creating an online course on Udemy after taking Grumo’s How to Create an Awesome Online Course:

Why did you decide to create an online course?
I’ve been teaching writer’s and inspiring writers how to outline their novels in small class settings in my area for a few years and it seemed like a good time to launch the course to everyone.

How did you choose the topic of the course?
After I started writing full time in Aug 2007 I came to one very quick conclusion. I suck at writing.
So, the first thing I started to do was teach myself everything I could about writing. To do this, I started with the basics and enrolled in college to pursue my BA in English. I figured if I’m going to be an author, I better learn what this alphabet thing is all about. I kid, but not really, the English language, as well as any language deserves to be studied and as a new writer, I needed the help.

From there, I devoured every book I could on writing. I read 22 books on writing each year for three years, not to mention 15 novels each year of varying genres to better understand HOW a writer writes. During my down time, which was limited, I enrolled in Holly Lisle’s class How to Revise Your Novel. It’s a 22 week class that is incredibly granular (like me) that taught me a ton.

In late 2008, I found myself a full time student, and avid reader working on my second Mystery manuscript. The problem was I had no idea how to write a book. Ha, I spent hundreds of hours learning how to write up to this point but I couldn’t get through my first draft without writing myself into a corner, or running out of ideas to continue the book.

That’s where the process of learning the outline came in and I haven’t looked back. I’ve studied every aspect of outlining novels over the last 5 years that I can literally sit down and outline a complete novel manuscript scene by scene in a few short weeks. I’m talking 100 plus pages of correct plot, layers, characters, and story arch in nearly any genre. It’s become a passion of mine, more so than writing the manuscript itself.

What is the purpose of this course?
As I eluded to the purpose of this course is to take all the required study time learning about story plot, arch, characterization and everything else required to write a novel and put it on the back burner. You shouldn’t need to study for hundreds of hours, taking up years of your life to sit down and write a descent story. Of course anyone can sit down and write a story, but for the people that don’t have a natural talent or the time to study, this course is for you.

This course is designed to take care of plot, character layers, and story arch required to outline a novel. The only thing a student needs to bring is a basic Whodunit idea, with some simple character sketches, and your creativity. The course takes care of the rest by walking you through a comprehensive chapter by chapter outline and dramatic story line.

Over the years my students often ask themselves, ‘how can several people take the same course with the same dramatic storyline and not come out with the same novel?’
It’s a good question, but there’s a little known secret.

One Storyline = Thousands of Possibilities…It’s true.
I know you’re asking, how could this be?

And it’s possible because there are tried and tested storylines that work, and through the storyline all a writer, or in the case of movies go, a director has to do is change the setting, characters, subplot, exposition, and dialogue and they have a completely different story or movie. The same goes for novel writers. Including what I just described, each writer has their own unique voice, and when you take that voice and perspective, and add a different settings, characters, and subplot you come away with a completely different story.

Take these hit movie storylines for example:

Turner and Hooch, and K-9
Babe and Gordy
Wyatt Earp and Tombstone
Deep Impact and Armageddon
Bugs Life and Antz
The Truman Show and Ed T.V.

All of these movies have the same basic storyline, yet had I not compared them, you likely wouldn’t have noticed, and that’s because the writer’s changed around the setting, characters, and plot to suit their own story. It’s done like this in the movies, and it’s done like this in novels.

How did you find time to produce it?
I needed to be a freak about time management. I looked over my already busy schedule and highlighted the open area’s. At that point I located two one hour time slots in each day and scheduled in that time to work on the course. I never missed a day and never went over the time allotted.

How long did it take you to put together?
It took two months of dedication to build this course, including the learning curve which I did not include in my scheduled time. That was completed during my time taking Miguel’s course and teaching myself Camtasia Studio 8.

What was the hardest thing to do?
Have patience. I’m not a patient man, and needed to slow myself down, so I wouldn’t skip any material I deemed important for my students. The actual process of creating the course was a breeze after I took Miguel’s course. That’s no lie and no purposeful promotion just for the sake of Miguel allowing me the privilege of posting on his blog. His course speaks for itself. I needed a step by step, hold my hand tutorial as I create my own course, and that’s what I got with Miguel’s course. Nuff said.

What was the simplest thing to do?
Outline the course!

How did you determine the price of the course?
I looked at other courses related to my niche; fiction and writing courses and found the average price of $199. Then I marked mine $40 less. There is no reason for that other than in my guy, I felt the value for time spent is $159. The monetary value for my students is hundreds of hours of saved time studying how to outline, and the thousands of dollars in potential income when they publish their novels.

What is your marketing strategy to promote it?
I have outlined (of course) several weeks worth of promotion I owe all to Nick Thatcher of LiveHacked.com. His marketing strategies are granular, impressive, and a perfect fit for anyone intending on promoting a novel or anything that can be promoted via social circles and media.

What software did you use?
I used Camtasia studio 8 for my editing and screen capture. I used PowerPoint for my slides. Both work well, especially Camtasia 8.

What hardware did you use? (camera, microphone, lights, etc.)
Oh boy, I went a little overboard here. I purchased a Blue Snowball mic, a Logitech HD webcam, two softbox lights, one large white material for the background, and two more lights for subject lighting. It wasn’t necessary but as I’ve mentioned before, I tend to get into the things I do, and try out several options.

What was the part the Grumo course help you the most with?
Miguel’s section on ‘recording your course’ was crucial to my success as an instructor. I could not have completed the course without learning his techniques such as audio/video settings, recording your voice, and editing to name a few. I took a massive amount of notes, that still sit on my desk as a reference as I write this out and will until I’m confident I can do it on my own.

What other resources have you used to make your course?
Other than Miguel’s course, I utilized the Udemy Facebook group to bounce idea’s and get idea’s for my course. They are all very supportive and quick to put you on the right track should you go off topic or off course when creating your course.

Please add anything else you’d think it would be cool for people to know about you and your course.
I got nothing Miguel. I left it all on the table above. Thank you for the opportunity to work with you, and should this campaign be over, I hope that you read this and found it motivating to keep teaching. You do a fantastic job and I wouldn’t have made this course without your help, so thanks again.

Thank you Michael for taking my course and the time to answer these questions!

If you are interested on taking Michael’s course he made available a special 50% discount coupon link.
Here it is: https://www.udemy.com/outline-your-whodunit-mystery-novel/?couponCode=GrumoMedia*

And if you would like to learn how to create your awesome online courses too here is Grumo’s own 50% discount link: https://www.udemy.com/how-to-create-an-awesome-online-course/?couponCode=LOVE2TEACH

Michael M Dickson is an author, freelance writer, blogger, and student of the craft of writing. He’s successfully taught several people his techniques to creating complete novel outlines in several genres including, mystery, young adult, romance, and thriller.
Michael is turning his hobby into a day job by teaching online, and assisting fellow writer’s develop and hone their novel outlines.

(*Note most Udemy coupons are bound to a quantity limit or expiry date so they may not work by the time you read this article. If they don’t let me know and I always can ask the instructor to extend it or create a new one for you!)

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