Creating An Outline For Your Novel

Penning down a story from start to end can be a daunting task, and things tend to get really muddled up in the middle. But crafting a book outline before you embark on your project can help you avert a mental breakdown when you can't figure out what needs to happen next.

So What Is An Outline? And Do You Need One?

Writing a book can feel like trying to build a rope bridge while hanging thousands of miles above ground. But when you create a book outline, you're laying out the bridge on solid ground, so all you have to do when the time comes is toss it to the other side of the ravine. Voila! Bridge complete. While writing a book is never so black-and-white, your outline will become a powerful guiding torch on your journey.

In the end, what is a novel outline? An outline is your unique road map that has all the important things you'll need to craft your story: the plot, setting, and characters. Think of it as an amalgamation of all the vague ideas floating around in your head or in your Notes app.

I believe in the power of this tool; however, every writer is different, and not everyone will jump onto the outlining bandwagon. Some may opt for the more free-form approach and ditch an outline entirely, choosing to see where the wind blows and fly by the seat of their pants (aka the pantsers). Others may find more confidence in having a road map, whether simple or detailed, to their story (aka the plotters).

I'm a plotter, so the very first step I take when gearing up for a novel is hash out an outline. From the bundle of ideas clustered in my Notes' app, I lay out the plot, the main sequence of events which will serve as the backbone; the characters, their unique features, their relationships with each other, and perhaps how they meet; and the setting/world background, even though I may not have a clear image of it at that moment. Nothing too detailed, nothing to difficult. The goal is to pour it all out, quick and dirty.

What this helps me do is keep track of what the book is supposed to be about and where it's going. However, there are many approaches to creating one. You may choose to create a bare-bones outline just to guide you along, or you could go all out and plot in detail what each minor and major scene will contain. That's up to you. The only thing that matters is that it works.

However, you also have to be wary of sticking too closely to this dictated map. Changes abound in the course of writing, and you may need to cover up a plot hole or make adjustments to your characters. All that is allowed. In no way does having an outline mean you must never stray from it. Its only purpose is to assist you, so it shouldn't become a shackle instead.

How Do I Create An Outline?

To create an outline, you need the three basic ingredients: plot points, character profiles, and worldbuilding.

Regarding the plot, you could start off with the basic novel template, which consists of the beginning, middle, and end of your story, and you can go into further detail after that. Using the main character's actions or plot events, you can draft out how the main character progresses from point A to point B, encounters perilous situations, and arrives at the resolution of his story.

For the characters, you can lay out the various people with significant influence on the main character and story, even if you don't know their names yet (baby-naming websites beware), then slowly come up with a character profile. What is their defining personality trait? What about their fatal flaw? Any significant events in their history that contributed to who they are today? How would they express various emotions like wrath or joy? What would they do in a hypothetical scenario, such as a life-threatening situation, or perhaps when discovering the infidelity of their significant other? Such questions will give you a clearer idea of who your characters are and what they might do. And trust me, these will come in especially handy when you're trying to write a scene where you know what happens, but not how it happens.

Humans are complex beings. So are your characters. A scene where Character A tells Character B some earth-shattering information can go a couple different ways depending on your character's traits. If in need of some assistance, you could even take a page or two from the Myers-Briggs personality archetypes. But keep in mind that no one person fulfills every single trait in an archetype to a tee.

Setting and world-building can take up a surprising amount of time, especially if you're going for high fantasy where everything is in a completely fictional world with fictional governments, religions, magic systems, and even socioeconomic standards.

To avoid falling down the bottomless pit of worldbuilding, you can start from the crucial world elements that will influence your characters and then work your way up. Things like the locations where the main events take place, landscapes that hold opportunities or obstacles for your characters, institutions that play a major role, or perhaps the magic system in place (if that applies to you). You can always flesh it out when the basic structure is in place, or even after you've started working on the novel itself!

With all these in the bag, you should be able to flesh out a coherent story outline that will keep you from getting lost. That's all for today, fellow humans. Happy writing!

Your friendly neighborhood editor,

Chiedozi.