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Book Writing 101: Deconstructing the Fable

Book Writing 101: Deconstructing The Fable

Have you ever wondered HOW great books are created? It all starts with a winning structure. Enter the fable. Since I ghostwrite, publish, and launch thought-leader books that focus on making a difference — as big an impact as possible in the world, let me deconstruct a bestselling fable for you there. Introducing the deconstruction of the book: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. Here are some relevant facts about the book:

Now for those of you who love stats and the more you learn about which books are selling and why the better chance you have to create a strong-selling if not a best-selling book, continue with me as I jump down the rabbit hole of book deconstruction.

Table of Contents – Perhaps better referred to as “The Book Outline” – Special sidebar note here: All the top ghostwriters I have spoken with have stated something like, “If you create a great outline you will create a great book.” This is the reason I share the following with you along with the number of page numbers and even the estimated number of words per chapter.

Introduction

The Fable
Luck 1
Part One: Underachievement 5
Part Two: Lighting the Fire 27
Part Three: Heavy Lifting 115
Part Four: Traction 171

The Model 185
An Overview of the Model 187
Team Assessment 191
Understanding and Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions 195

A Note About Time: Kathryn’s Methods 221
A Special Tribute to Teamwork 223
Acknowledgments 225
About the author 228

Breaking the Outline Down Further
The above outline is the “high-level” outline. What follows now is the full outline.

Part One
Backstory pages 7-9 3 pages
Kathryn pages 10-12 3 pages
Rationale pages 13-14 2 pages
Grumblings pages 15-16 2 pages
Observations pages 17-18 2 pages
The Staff pages 19-25 6 pages

Part Two – Lighting the Fire
First Test pages 29-31 2 pages
End Run pages 32-34 2 pages
Drawing the Line pages 35-37 3 pages
Napa pages 38-39 2 pages
The Speech pages 40-44 4 pages
Pushing Back pages 45-48 3 pages
Entering the Danger pgs 49-51 2 pages
Getting Naked pages 52-53 2 pages
Going Deeper pages 54-58 5 pages
Poolside pages 59-60 2 pages
Rebound pages 61-62 2 pages
Awareness pages 63-70 8 pages
Ego pages 71-78 8 pages
Goals pages 79-81 4 pages
Deep Tissue pages 82-88 7 pages
Attack pages 89-90 2 pages
Exhibition pages 91-99 9 pages
Film Noir pages 100-104 5 pages
Application pages 105-114* 12 pages

Part Three – Heavy Lifting
On-Site pages 117-124 8 pages
Fireworks pages 125-130 6 pages
Leaks pages 131-132 2 pages
Off-Site #Two pages 133-138 6 pages
Plowing On pages 139-145 7 pages
Accountability pages 146-150 5 pages
Individual
Contributor pages 151-152 2 pages
The Talk pages 153-156 3 pages
Last Stand pages 157-159 2 pages
Flack pages 160-162 2 pages
Heavy Lifting pages 163-167 4 pages
Rally pages 168-170 2 pages

Part Four – Traction
Harvest pages 173-177 4 pages
Gut Check pages 178-181 3 pages
The March pages 182-184 2 pages

The Model
An Overview
of the Model pages 187-190 3 pages
Team Assessment pages 191-194 3 pages
Understanding &
Overcoming The
Five Dysfunctions pages 195-220 25 pages
Note About Time
Kathryn’s Methods pages 221-222 2 pages
Special Tribute pages 223-224 2 pages
Acknowledgments pages 225-227 3 pages

TALLIES AGAIN

# OF CHAPTERS — 48
# AVERAGE # OF PAGES PER CHAPTER — 4
# AVERAGE # OF WORDS PER PAGE — 190

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