How to Outline a Novel: Your Easy Guide to Plotting and Planning

Discover a simple process for outlining a novel, explore popular outlining tools, and get additional outlining tips to use throughout your writing journey.  

By Julie Tyler Ruiz

CONTENTS:

• What is an outline?
• How to outline a novel: 5 steps
• Additional tips for outlining a novel

What is an outline?

An outline is a document that describes and organizes all the components of a writing project. For writing a novel, an outline would show the framework of the plot and the events in chronological order. 

The main purpose of a novel outline is to streamline the work you do to write a book-length story. In the early stages of the process, an outline can help orient you to the storyline. Who are the characters and what is their predicament? Later in the process, you can use an outline to refine and tighten the plot. Where do you see opportunities to add or delete scenes, improve the pacing, or put characters in more dynamic situations?

As we'll explore in this article, there are different types of novel outlines and methods of generating them. The type you end up writing will depend on your preferences and how you approach writing. For instance, your outline can be simple, just a bulleted or numbered list of all the plot points that make up the story you're telling. If you prefer more detail, you could write an outline that describes how every plot point unfolds, moment by moment. 

No matter which outlining approach you prefer, treat your outline as a flexible document that you modify multiple times throughout the writing process. Each time you discover a fresh idea or opportunity to improve your novel, you'll update the outline to account for the change and integrate new elements seamlessly into your existing draft.

On the fence about whether you actually need an outline? Read "Writing a Novel Outline: Purpose, Benefits, and Common Challenges" to help you decide. 

How to write a novel outline: 5 steps

For this guide, I set out to make outline creation easy and straightforward, a task you can do in an afternoon. We'll start with high-level information about your novel and gradually add detail, while referring to different outlining resources to speed up the process and eliminate frustrating guesswork. 

Follow the steps below to create a clear, concise outline that will serve as a reliable roadmap for writing your novel. 

TIP: For each step, I've suggested an approximate timeframe for completion. Consider setting a timer to carry out each step. The purpose here is not to rush through outlining, but to help you focus on each task and avoid overthinking. Remember: you don't have to aim for perfection or finality on this first go. Just get the outline down on paper and give yourself permission to expand and refine it as you progress through the writing process. 

1. Write a logline for the story (~10 minutes). 

A logline is a short plot summary, one or two sentences at most, that presents the novel's core elements: the protagonist, the central conflict, and what's at stake. The brevity of the logline format forces you to focus on what the story is really about, without getting bogged down in details. It's from this level of clarity that you'll construct your outline and ultimately the novel itself.

Refer to a few logline formulas, templates, and generators online, such as ToolBaz or StudioBinder, to write your logline. In most cases, these tools ask you to address:

• The protagonist (identified by role, defining characteristic, or life situation)
• The protagonist's goal
• The roadblock or conflict standing in the way of the goal
• What's at stake if the protagonist fails. 

Here's a logline example for James Dickey's novel Deliverance: 

Four men set out on a weekend canoe trip through the Georgia wilderness, seeking adventure and escape from their suburban lives. When they encounter dangerous rapids and hostile locals, their journey turns into a fight for survival, forcing them to confront their most primal instincts. 

2. Identify the major plot points (~10 minutes). 

For this step, you'll identify the novel's major plot points by building on the core plot elements you identified in your logline. Plot points are the key events of a story that propel the story forward and contribute to character development. Storytelling guides differ on the number of plot points a good story needs, but the basic plot points you'll cover include:

• Inciting incident: an event that sets the action in motion by disrupting the protagonist's routine and introducing the central conflict. 
• Exposition: vital information about the protagonist's past experiences before the story begins. Exposition is often revealed gradually throughout the narrative during moments when information about the past affects the present. 
• Rising action: a series of events that intensify the conflict and raise the stakes for the protagonist.
• Climax: the most intense and crucial moment of the story when the central conflict has reached its peak, the stakes are the highest, and the protagonist must make a decision that will lead to resolution, for better or worse. 
• Falling action: a series of events that happen very quickly to wrap the story up. 
• Resolution: the final outcome of all the protagonist's decisions, efforts, and actions. 

Spend a few minutes jotting down these plot points. Some of them you may already have a sure sense of. For the ones you're not so sure about, either leave a blank space to fill in later or list down a few possibilities that you'll choose from after you've gathered more plot insights.  

3. Select an outlining method (~30 minutes).

With your basic story elements written down, the next step is to select an outlining method. While you can write a functional outline by simply listing your plot's events in chronological order, following an established method makes it easier to shape these events into a journey that transforms the protagonist and captivates your reader.     

Remember that plot is more than just a series of events occurring one right after another. Plot is about how characters respond to those events, all the setbacks, triumphs, breakdowns, surprises, breakthroughs, and epiphanies that lead to the story's resolution. A good novel outline will account for the impact that every event, moment, and plot point makes on the characters. 

Below, I've summarized three well-known methods of outlining and linked to webpages where you can learn more. Take about 30 minutes to review these (or other) methods and select the one that most resonates with you: 

Three-act structure

Derived from Aristotle's Poetics and adapted by many storytellers over the centuries, this classic approach divides your story into three main acts. Act 1, the Setup, includes exposition, the inciting incident, and plot point 1. Act 2, the Confrontation, includes the rising action, an intense midpoint, and plot point 2. Act 3, the Resolution, includes the climax, falling action, and the resolution.

The Hero's Journey

Popularized by Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces, this approach sends the protagonist, or hero, on a quest away from the ordinary world into an unfamiliar, and even dangerous, setting to achieve a goal. The hero faces challenges, obstacles, and enemies, ultimately achieving the goal and returning home transformed.  

Beat mapping

From the Save the Cat series of plotting books and tools, Beat Mapping breaks your plot into 15 "beats," or moments that transform the protagonist and advance the plot. Beats include moments like "the catalyst" (launching the story), "the debate" (the protagonist's moment of self-doubt), and "the bad guys close in" (opposing forces culminate and hinder the protagonist). 

4. Select outlining software (~30 minutes).  

In addition to trying these methods, you can also consider using novel outlining software to digitize your process. Outlining software programs typically offer a way to visualize your plot structure and move scenes, chapters, or other elements around. Some programs even offer tutorials or instructional material so that you can understand plotting on a deeper level.  

Below, I've summarized six popular outlining software programs and linked to their webpages where you can learn more and create your own account. Take bout 30 minutes to review these programs and select the one that best meets your needs: 

• Plottr: visualize your plot points and rearrange scenes easily, while color coding different storylines and subplots. 
• The Novel Factory: use plot outline templates and planners for different genres to build your outline, while also developing characters and voice. 
• Plot Factory: use plot outline templates to maintain tension and shape the story arc, while building your story world, developing characters, and organizing your notes. 
• Scrivener: outline your story one scene or chapter overview at a time and rearrange sections as needed.
• Story Planner: choose from different story structures, like the Three-act Structure or the Hero's Journey, and fill in the labeled sections with your story's specifics. 
• Save the Cat Story Structure Software: build your plot, beat by beat, develop characters, and even plot out multiple versions of your story. 

NOTE: Outlining software is not required to write a good outline. You can use a simple word processing program like Microsoft Word or Google Docs to list each of the plot points and describe how they unfold.  

5. Build your outline (~30 minutes). 

Using the outlining method and software you've selected, as well as the logline and plot points you've written down, begin building your novel outline. In this step, you'll expand each plot point to include details about the characters and what they experience in each moment, as well as how they evolve along their journey.

Here's an example of how the inciting incident from Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games might appear in an outline:

Inciting Incident: The annual Reaping takes place, a lottery system where one boy and one girl from each district are chosen as tributes for the Hunger Games a deadly competition controlled by the Capitol.

• The Everdeen sisters, Katniss and Prim, attend the Reaping, along with the rest of District 12.
• Effie Trinket, the Capitol's representative, draws the name Primrose Everdeen, Katniss's younger sister.
• To protect Prim, Katniss volunteers to take her sister's place as the female tribute.
• Peeta Mellark is chosen as the male tribute.
• This begins Katniss's efforts to survive and protect her family, while participating in a fight to the death.

Additional tips for outlining a novel

Developing outlines for novels or other writing projects is a skill you can hone over the course of your writing career. Here are some additional tips to help you get the most out of outlining. 

Revisit your outline regularly.

By revisiting your outline at different junctures of the writing process, you'll remain flexible and open to new ideas. As you draft the novel and explore possibilities, you'll gain insight into ways your plot can improve. Then you can develop the plot organically, updating your outline to account for each change.

Master the craft of storytelling.

While outlining methods, templates, and software can facilitate the process of structuring your novel, it's still important to understand how stories work. That way, you use these tools to complement, rather than replace, your skillset. In addition, you draw upon your own knowledge to make storytelling decisions, including when to stick to the tried-and-true plot formulae and when to depart from them. 

Keep your logline and other summary material handy.

Just like your outline, your logline, synopsis, and other plot summary material can be of use later in your novel writing process, particularly when considering your publishing options. With a compelling overview of your novel on hand, you can pitch literary agents effectively, when pursuing the traditional publishing route, or develop your overview into book marketing content, when pursuing the self-publishing route. 

Experiment with different types of outlines.