How to Outline a Novel: 6 Methods and a Worked Example
To outline a novel, gather what you already know about the story, write the premise in one sentence, and pin down the handful of key moments that give the book its shape. Then work out how many chapters you have and where each key moment falls, and fill the chapters between them with what happens and what changes. Mark which scenes set something up and which pay it off, and start drafting once the next few chapters are clear. The outline keeps changing as you write; that's part of the job.
Below: six outlining methods, compared, then the whole process walked through on an invented 80,000-word mystery.
How to write a novel outline in 6 steps
- Get everything out of your head. Scenes you can picture, characters, the ending if you have one, in any order. This is raw material for the outline.
- Write the premise in one sentence: who the story is about, what starts it, what stands in the way, and the choice it builds toward.
- Pin down the key moments: hook, inciting incident, first plot point, midpoint, second plot point, climax, resolution.
- Do the chapter math. Book length ÷ average chapter length = number of chapters. Place each key moment in its chapter.
- Fill the chapters between: what happens, what has changed by the end, who is on the page, what it sets up or pays off.
- Draft, and update the outline when the draft finds something better.
Steps 3 to 5 use a three-act skeleton plus a chapter list. If that's too much planning or too little for you, the six methods below change how you do them. To fill in a ready-made version, use the novel outline template (Excel, Word, or PDF).
Six ways to outline a novel
Outlining methods differ mainly in how much they decide before you start drafting. Choose by temperament and by genre: a twisty mystery needs more decided up front than a quiet character novel.
| Method | What you write | Good fit | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reverse outline | One line per chapter, after the draft | Pantsers revising a first draft | Only works once there's a draft |
| Lighthouse outline | 3–5 must-write scenes and the ending | Discovery writers who want a direction | The middle can sag |
| Three-act skeleton | Seven key moments at set percentages | A first novel; plot-driven genres | Feels mechanical if you stop there |
| Chapter-by-chapter synopsis | A paragraph per chapter | Writers who think in chapters; serials | Takes time to rewrite when plans change |
| Scene spreadsheet | One row per scene, columns for threads | Mysteries, ensembles, several POVs | Easy to keep tinkering and never draft |
| Snowflake method | Ten steps from one sentence to a scene list | Writers who want everything decided | The longest to set up |
1. Reverse outline
Write the draft first, then list every chapter in one line: what happens, what changes. The list shows you what the draft actually is, which is rarely what you think it is: the sagging middle, the subplot that vanished in chapter 9, the two chapters doing the same job. If you discover the story by writing it, this is your outline; it just comes second.
2. Lighthouse outline
Decide the ending and three to five scenes you know you have to write, in any order. Those are the lighthouses. You find the route from one to the next while drafting. After each chapter, look at the next lighthouse and ask whether you're still heading for it or whether it needs to move. Some writers call these signposts. It's the lightest outline that still keeps a long book from drifting.
3. Three-act skeleton
Seven key moments, each pinned to a share of the book: the hook at the start, the inciting incident around 10%, the end of Act One around 25%, the midpoint at 50%, the end of Act Two around 75%, the climax around 90%, and the resolution at the end. Because they're percentages, they convert to word counts for any length. You can add two pinch points, around 37% and 62%, where the opposition shows its strength; they give the long stretches of Act Two something to aim at. The full breakdown, with Pride and Prejudice mapped act by act, is in three-act structure for novels.
Other structures fit the same slot. Blake Snyder's Save the Cat! has 15 beats and was written for screenplays; Jessica Brody adapted it for novelists in Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. There's a beat sheet template for it. Dan Wells's Seven-Point Story Structure is a different set of seven, built around plot turns and pinch points. Christopher Vogler's 12-stage hero's journey suits adventure and fantasy.
A structure on its own isn't an outline yet. It tells you what has to happen at certain points in any story; the outline says what happens in yours, chapter by chapter.
4. Chapter-by-chapter synopsis
One paragraph per chapter, in order, written before the draft. It's the classic picture of an outline. The test of every paragraph: does something change by the end of the chapter? If not, merge or cut that chapter while it's still a paragraph in the synopsis, before it costs you 3,000 words.
5. Scene spreadsheet
One row per scene, with columns for whatever you need to track: point of view, location, the main plot and each subplot, clues, and word count. Read across a row to see a scene; read down a column to follow a thread. Nathan Bransford describes outlining in a spreadsheet with a column for each major character, inspired by J.K. Rowling's handwritten plot grid for Order of the Phoenix. It suits books with many moving parts, where the question is less "what happens next" than "has the reader seen this clue yet."
6. Snowflake method
Randy Ingermanson's method grows the book in ten steps: a one-sentence summary, then a paragraph, then character summaries, then longer synopses (one page, then four), then a spreadsheet of every scene, and only then the draft. It takes the longest to set up and leaves the fewest surprises, which some writers want and others find deadening.
Which method should you use?
- You've never finished a novel: the three-act skeleton, plus a rolling plan for the next three chapters that you extend as you draft. Enough structure to get through the middle, not so much that drafting feels like filling in a form.
- You hate outlining: a lighthouse outline before the draft, a reverse outline after it. You keep the discovery and still get a map for revision.
- Mystery, thriller, or several points of view: scene spreadsheet. You need to see who knows what, scene by scene.
- Serial or web novel: chapter-by-chapter synopsis, kept a few chapters ahead of what's published, with the ending decided.
- Book one of a series: any of the above, plus a story bible for the facts book two can't contradict.
Mixing works. One combination: the three-act skeleton for the whole book, a chapter synopsis for the next few chapters, and a reverse outline when the draft is done.
Worked example: outlining The Salt Ledger
Here's the process on an invented book, a small-town mystery planned at 80,000 words.
Step 1: The premise in one sentence
When a small-town bookkeeper learns her late father paid a drowned fisherman's widow $40 a month for 37 years, she has to choose between his good name and the truth about the storm, while the harbormaster works to keep it buried.
The sentence names the protagonist (Maren, a bookkeeper), the discovery that starts the story (the payments), the opposition (the harbormaster), and the choice the ending turns on (her father's name or the truth).
Step 2: The key moments
| Key moment | Where | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Hook | ch. 1 | Closing the cannery's books, Maren finds a $40 cash advance to her father every month since 1987, with no receipt |
| Inciting incident | ~10% | At the funeral, the harbormaster asks her for "the green ledger" |
| First plot point | ~25% | She finds the ledger, which shows the $40 went to a drowned man's widow, hides it, and lies to him |
| Midpoint | ~50% | The 1987 log: the harbormaster captained the boat and took it out against the storm warning, and her father helped cover it up |
| Second plot point | ~75% | The cannery office burns with her copies, and her brother helps the harbormaster take the original |
| Climax | ~90% | She goes out on the water, which she has refused since childhood, to find her father's carbon copy, then reads it aloud at the town meeting |
| Resolution | end | In her own bookkeeping office, she keeps paying the widow the $40, openly |
Notice what the midpoint does: Maren started out protecting her father's name, and now the truth means giving it up. A midpoint that changes what the protagonist wants keeps the second half from repeating the first. The two pinch points land in chapters 10 (the harbormaster offers to buy the family house, and her brother says yes) and 17 (he moves to shut down the cannery).
Step 3: The chapter math
80,000 words at about 3,000 words a chapter is 27 chapters. Multiply the percentages out: 25% is 20,000 words, which falls in chapter 7. The midpoint lands in chapter 14 and the end of Act Two in chapter 20. Chapters don't all have to be the same length; turning-point chapters often run long, so adjust each target and keep an eye on the total.
Step 4: Fill the chapters between
With the key chapters placed, about 20 are left. Each gets a working title and three short entries: what happens, what has changed by the end, and what it sets up or pays off. Three rows from the outline:
| Ch | What happens | What changes | Plants / payoffs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Maren searches the house and finds nothing. Her brother wants to list it by Friday. | Grieving together turns into brother against sister | — |
| 9 | Dot, who owns the cannery, admits she paid out the cash for Maren's father: "Tom wrote everything down twice." | Maren learns her father didn't act alone | Plants the carbon copy (pays off ch. 21) |
| 18 | The widow refuses to go on record; she wants the money's story kept private | Maren learns the truth will hurt the person she meant to help | — |
Only fill a few chapters ahead of where you're drafting. Chapter 18 is the kind of row that changes once you've written chapter 12 and know who the widow really is.
Step 5: Setups, payoffs, arcs, and subplots
Every payoff in the second half needs a setup in the first. Mark both ends:
- The $40 advance: planted in chapter 1, explained at the midpoint in chapter 14. The resolution echoes it.
- The harbormaster's limp, which he blames on "a fall on the ice": planted in chapter 3, paid off in chapter 14, when the log shows he was hurt the night the boat went down.
- Maren won't go on boats: planted in chapter 2, paid off at the climax in chapter 24.
A setup with no payoff is a loose thread. A payoff with no setup is a coincidence, and readers don't forgive coincidences that rescue the hero.
Track the inner story the same way. Maren's arc in one line per act: she believes her father was a simple, honest man (Act One); she learns he lied for decades and wants to protect him anyway (Act Two); she tells the truth, his part included (Act Three). Give each subplot a column too. Her brother Eli moves from ally (ch. 2) to opponent (ch. 4) to betrayal (ch. 20) to the one who rows her out (ch. 23). When a subplot's column stays empty for ten chapters, you've dropped it.
Step 6: Draft, and update the outline
Say that while drafting chapter 9 you realize Dot knows more than the outline said: Maren's father wrote every entry twice. That line can carry Act Three. The carbon copy is on his old boat, and the boat is the one place Maren has refused to go. Updating the outline means changing the row, then checking that the earlier chapters still set up what the new idea depends on.
How detailed should a novel outline be?
| Length (SFWA categories) | Outline depth that usually holds up |
|---|---|
| Short story (under 7,500 words) | A premise sentence and the ending |
| Novelette or novella (7,500–40,000 words) | Lighthouses, or the seven key moments |
| Novel (40,000 words and up) | Key moments plus a chapter list, a few chapters ahead |
| Series | The above for each book, plus a story bible and the series ending |
Most novels run well past the 40,000-word minimum; use the typical length for your genre when you do the chapter math. Beyond that, more detail mostly means more to rewrite. The outline is detailed enough when you know what the next chapter is for.
When the outline stops working mid-draft
Stuck before chapter 2. That's an opening problem more than an outline problem; see how to start a novel.
Stuck around chapters 5–10. Usually the next key moment is too far away. Add a lighthouse between here and the midpoint, or plan the first pinch point, and make the current chapter head toward it.
Stuck in the middle of the book. Check the midpoint. If it doesn't change what the protagonist wants or knows, the second half has nothing new to do. Writer's block has more ways out.
Lost track of who knows what by chapter 30. That's a records problem. Keep characters, clues, and dates in a story bible, and see character management for long serials.
Plotter, pantser, or in between
Plotters plan first; pantsers (discovery writers) find the story by writing it. Jerry Jenkins, a pantser with close to 200 books behind him, writes that most writers are hybrids to some degree, and the methods above cover the whole range: the reverse outline for the purest pantser, the snowflake method for the most thorough plotter. Even Jenkins starts every book with a main character, their problem, and an idea of where the story will end. That's the smallest outline there is: a premise and a destination.
Where to keep the outline
Index cards on a wall, a spreadsheet, or Scrivener's corkboard all work. What matters is that you can see the whole book at a glance and move a chapter without retyping it. LitMemo has a story outline built for this: jot ideas in the brain dump and promote them to plot beats, group beats into acts, link each beat to the characters, settings, and foreshadowing it involves, and expand a beat into a chapter when you're ready to draft it. The novel outline template gives you the same structure as a download.