Writing a Novel Outline: Purpose, Benefits, and Common Challenges

Is writing a novel outline for you? Review the purpose and benefits of an outline, as well as common challenges and frustrations writers experience, to decide. 

By Julie Tyler Ruiz

In going about the process of writing a novel, you come to a point when it's time to consider creating an outline. How do you write one? Should you create one? Do you need one? Will it actually help? How far can you get without one?

The answers to these questions aren't always straightforward. We all take different approaches to writing a novel. We all think differently. And we all draw upon different gifts and abilities to tell stories. For example:

• Planners take a meticulous approach, using the early phases of a project to research their topic, explore ideas, and discover possibilities before committing actual scenes to paper. They write detailed outlines, character profiles, and other documents to guide their process. 
• Pantsers take a more relaxed and spontaneous approach. Preferring to "fly by the seat of their pants," they hit the ground running, writing every word that flows from brain to fingers. Their stories unfold organically; the more pages a pantser writes, the more insights they gather for plot and character development. 
• Some writers take an intuitive approach to writing, combining the best of planning and pantsing to draft their novels. They like to refer to an outline or other kind of roadmap document when writing, while leaving room for creative exploration and unexpected developments. 

As a writer and writing coach, I make it my duty to help writers master their own unique writing process, while making informed decisions about how to bring their ideas to life---including the use of novel outlines.

That's my motivation behind writing this article.   

Below, we'll explore why outlines are used and how they can help you, as well as address common challenges and frustrations that writers experience with these documents. 

What is the purpose of an outline?

A well-written outline has many uses and benefits when you're writing a novel. Here are some of the main ones:

Ordering the events of your story.

An outline organizes the events of your story into a chronological list of what happens first, second, and so forth, all the way to the end. With such a list, you can better understand the story as a whole, identify plot gaps or inconsistencies, and develop your characters. 

Seeing the whole plot at a glance. 

An outline lets you see at a glance all the different components of the plot. With this visibility, it's often easier to make broad decisions that affect large areas of the text, such as raising the stakes, intensifying the conflict, introducing subplots, or fixing pacing issues. 

Giving yourself a writing roadmap. 

An outline functions as a roadmap for your writing process and can help you streamline the various tasks of writing a novel. For example, you can refer to you outline when drafting new scenes and chapters. That way, you can make sure any new material actually drives your novel's plot, rather than veering away from the central storyline.   

Discovering new possibilities. 

While outlines mainly serve as planning tools, you can also use them to discover connections between plot events and characters, uncover hidden themes, and identify opportunities for flashbacks or foreshadowing. These discoveries add depth and dimension to the narrative and ultimately enrich the reading experience. 

Describing your vision.  

Because an outline encapsules the whole plot, it can help you articulate your creative vision in clear, succinct terms. Being able to describe your project and what the novel is about is especially helpful when you want to enlist the support of a book coach, developmental editor, critique partner, or beta reader. 

Shaping the protagonist's journey. 

Outlining your novel makes it easier to identify key events that transform the protagonist over the course of the narrative. Key events include the inciting incident, rising action, moments of decision, triumph, breakthrough, and breakdown, climax, falling action, and resolution. How will your protagonist change through experience? An outline can help you answer this question and design every scene to enact this change.  

Facilitating edits and revisions.

When the moment arrives to edit and revise your novel draft, having an outline can make this stage of the writing process more effective and enjoyable. For every change you make to a particular the plot, like adding or deleting a scene, for example, you can use the outline to account for the change and explore how it will affect the plot as a whole. 

Common outline challenges and frustrations

Along with offering many benefits, novel outlines have been known to present challenges: 

 For some writers, an outline feels restrictive, like a binding contract that limits their creativity, spontaneity, and freedom to discover fresh ideas along the novel writing journey. If you write an outline, how closely do you have to stick to it? What do you do if you later discover you need to change the events of the story?

For others, writing an outline feels daunting. How can you predict the structure of your story before you write it? 

And still for others, some of the outlining advice out there seems overly complex and time consuming. What's the point of spending so much time and energy on an outline, instead of writing the actual novel? 

The trick is to treat your outline as a living document, that evolves at the same time your story evolves. 

Outlining tips and recommendations

As a writing coach, I do recommend that you consider creating some kind of document that will serve as a roadmap. Doesn't have to be an official outline, in the sense that it lists every plot event in order. But creating some kind of short document that encapsulates the entire plot, start to finish, is a useful exercise for grasping the story you're setting out to tell.  

As you decide whether or not to write a novel outline, give these additional ideas some thought:

• Outlining does not come with strict rules. While this process does have some best practices, you can use an outline as just a guide, rather than a rulebook.
• Your outline doesn't have to be overly complex or detailed, especially if you're just starting your novel project. Keep it simple, by focusing only on the major plot points, rather than every little moment your protagonist experiences. 
• You can allow the outline to change and develop over time, as insights arise on what's best for your novel. 
• You don't have to spend forever generating an outline. You can usually put one together in a few hours or even less, if you take a simple, no frills, no worries approach. 
• While writing an outline can seem like a task that interrupts your experience of writing a novel, an outline can actually save you time in the long run. 
• With the right mindset and approach, outlining can unlock more story ideas than might surface otherwise.
• Outlining can also offer direction for each writing session and motivate you to keep writing until your novel is ready for readers. 

Decided to write an outline for your novel? Read my article, "How to Outline a Novel: Your Easy Guide to Plotting and Planning." Here, you'll discover a simple process for producing an outline quickly, along with different types of outlines, methods you can follow, and software that can make outlining a no brainer.