Outline a Rough Draft of Your Novel
This is a worksheet for people like me, who see the dreaded Triangular Mountain of Plot Points and curl up inside. Stories don’t always need to form the shape of a triangle with their conflict, climax, and resolution.
Try these steps out to make a rough draft of your first plotline.
(I say first because most writers always go back and add or delete ideas along the way! What you plan with these steps doesn’t have to be permanent.)
Step 1: Set the Scene
Filling out these points will expand your story and make it seem more real in your mind, if it isn’t something that you have a good concept of already.
This is the step you’ll want to return to if you’re struggling to write later because there aren’t enough concrete details about your fictional world/cast of characters.
My story takes place in (city, country, kingdom, world, universe): __________
The year is: _____
My character(s) is(are): __________
Their current situation is: __________
Step 2: Pinpoint Your Theme
Stories have themes, even when you don’t realize it. Concrete themes, like survival, love, or death, are more straightforward. In Room, the story is about how the main characters survive through a testament to their love for each other.
Or you could want to write about something more fluid, like the experience of growing up. A coming of age theme (like in The Perks of Being a Wallflower) will demonstrate how the young protagonist matures in their identity or their world view by the end of the book.
Whatever your theme is, write it at the top of your planning page or document. I’ve found that I have to return it while outlining when I feel lost or stuck. It’s easy to wander away from your theme when you get excited or if it’s been a while since you got your initial idea. (And you’ll need a concrete theme if you decide to pitch your manuscript to literary agents, so you’re saving your future self a bit of extra work.)
Step 3: Create Your Initial Conflict
Every story needs an initial conflict to kick things off, even if your outline would look more like the line on a heart rate monitor than a triangle. Think about Georgie sailing his boat down the street and going missing in It or Prim getting selected at the reaping in The Hunger Games.
__________ will happen to X character(s) and cause them to react by doing __________.
Because my character(s) had that reaction, the world starts changing by __________.
Step 4: Make Each Chapter a Bullet Point
Chapter One
This will likely include all of the information you planned from Step 1 and 2. The initial conflict is often the hook at the end of the first chapter, but it can happen before or after too!
Chapter Two
When my character sees the world changing in the above ways, they respond by doing __________.
Chapter Three (etc.)
Keep in mind that each chapter needs to have a point that drives your character or plot towards your main theme or conclusion.
Don’t panic if you don’t have all the details of your plot in mind yet! Remember, this bullet point stage is for rough draft planning. You could come up with five chapters that end the book. That’s awesome—go write what you plan!
You’ll get more ideas as you start writing. When inspiration strikes, jump back into the heart of your bullet point list and thread ideas in wherever they fit best. That’s what’s so great about working with a list form instead of writing everything in a simple shape. You have endless room and the eternal ability to expand your fictional world.
Sometimes this part of novel outlining takes me a month. Sometimes many. It depends on how vivid the story is to me when I think about it.
Most of the time, I let my outlines marinate. Make this bullet point list or one without chapter headers. Open your notes when you get an idea for a scene detail, a conflict, dialogue, or anything else. When you want to organize, you’ll have pages of thoughts that came to you while you were working out or grocery shopping. Use them as inspiration to piece together a longer story (or throw out the ideas that aren’t as great as you thought they were).
Step 4: Read Through Your Outline
You’ll have quite a few things going on within your outline at this point, so review everything when you feel like you’ve reached the halfway point or end of your story. You’ll get a feel for the flow, see if the thematic threads or character arcs connect where they should, and spot gaps that need more details.
Writers who don’t typically plan—don’t worry. Read through your bullet point list to refresh yourself.
If you don’t get any ideas like the list above, just start writing. You can update your list with what you write in each chapter as you go, just so you’ll always know where you are in the plot when you sit back down to write again.
Step 5: Check Your Theme or Point
After reviewing your outline, consider if it carries and fulfills your theme or main point that you listed at the top of your document. It should! That’s what creates the bliss of closing a book and knowing every loose end got tied up.
Step 6: Write Your Heart Out
Writers who haven’t written with an existing outline might panic a bit here too. Let me set the scene—when I have a working bullet list outline, I keep it open in its own tab. Then I have another tab with my manuscript.
I usually split my screen in half so I can see both documents, but the manuscript takes up more space so I can see the entirety of each paragraph. I review where I’m at in my outline, then jump into the writing process. The outline is always a click away if I can’t quite remember where the chapter is going, what specific details I planned, or where it’s supposed to end.
Optional Step: Include a “Possible Plot Points” Section
I love letting outlines sit so I can add to them over the course of weeks or even months. At the same time, it creates tons of random ideas that don’t always fit into my outline when I sift through everything and make chapter headings.
The ideas or details that don’t make my outline go in a separate section that I call “Possible Plot Points.” If a chapter is noticeably short, boring, or just plain missing something, I’ll go back to this section. There’s usually something that I can add into my current chapter. Most of the time, I get inspired by the old ideas.
Nothing you write down during your outlining is a waste! Save it all. The stuff you don’t use will become useful later, I promise.
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Try this version of outlining for yourself! Whether you’re plotting on paper or your computer, outlining is an immense help in writing long-form stories or books.
