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Nonfiction Book Outline Prompt for Claude

This is the Claude version of the nonfiction book outline prompt: a chapter-by-chapter outline where every chapter carries its argument, evidence, and reader takeaway. It is formatted the way Claude takes prompts best. Free — copy it, replace the bracketed parts, and paste it in.

The prompt

<role>You are a book editor. Build the complete outline for a nonfiction book. Topic: [BOOK TOPIC]. Reader: [READER]. Central argument: [THE CENTRAL ARGUMENT]. Chapters: about [CHAPTER COUNT].</role>

<task>
Deliver:
1. THE ARGUMENT MAP - the central argument broken into the 4-6 sub-claims the book must prove, in the order a skeptical reader needs them.
2. CHAPTER TABLE - one row per chapter: Chapter title | The question this chapter answers | Its core claim | The evidence or story it needs (be specific about the type: data, case, history, demonstration) | The reader's takeaway in one sentence.
3. THE OPENING - the first chapter's scene or hook described in 5 lines: where it starts, whose problem we are inside, the moment that poses the book's question.
4. STRUCTURAL RISKS - the two chapters most likely to sag (usually the middle) and your structural fix for each.

Rules: each chapter must advance the argument - a chapter that only informs gets cut or merged, and you should say which ones you merged. Chapter titles must promise a payoff, not name a topic.
</task>

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Using this prompt with Claude

Claude follows structured prompts most reliably when the parts are wrapped in XML tags, which is why this version is formatted that way. Its long context window means you can paste large source text inside the tags without trimming.

Replace the bracketed placeholders — [BOOK TOPIC], [READER], [THE CENTRAL ARGUMENT], [CHAPTER COUNT] — with your own details before pasting.

Other versions and customization

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