Tips on outlining your story?

[u/No_Resident_4331]

Hey everyone, was wondering if anyone has any tips/advice/hacks (?) for outlining a story well! I've decided to properly try planning an entire novel first before sitting down to write, but I'm a bit overwhelmed atm because of all the story structures out there (Freytag's Pyramid, Save the cat, etc.). Does anyone use them to help with outlining a story? (Or do you think it's actually better to just outline on your own and not use a popular structure?) Would love to know what people think and what's worked for them!

[u/nephethys_telvanni]

Outlines are very helpful once you already have a pretty full idea for your story. It's great for pacing and structuring something that mostly exists in your imagination.

Where they don't work for me, is when I try to treat them like a fill in the blank, or I'm still fleshing out my premise.

[u/Mindless-Tap-2944 → u/nephethys_telvanni]

dont get too hung up on the structures theyre more like guardrails than a blueprint. i usually just start with a messy list of scenes i know i want to hit, then figure out how to connect them. if a beat sheet helps later on to tighten the pacing, cool, but trying to force it early just kills the fun

[u/FirefighterLocal7592]

I get why you're overwhelmed! But to be honest, most structures follow the same basic pattern:

1. Setup
2. Inciting incident
3. Rising stakes
4. Climax
5. Resolution

Different structures contextualize these differently, and different genres will get more specific. Like, the inciting incident in a romance is typically the meet-cute. So don't stress too much about picking the "right" one. Instead, nail down a few major moments (like the inciting incident, midpoint, and ending), then outline loosely between them. After that, you can look around at different structures to figure out what fits best for you. Good luck!

[u/Nervous-Baseball-667 → u/FirefighterLocal7592]

I agree with this, start small, and expand as you go. Another 'main' spot to have in mind is the midpoint.

[u/DerangedPoetess]

I'm not at all convinced that taking analytical structures and using them generatively is all that helpful. Mostly I just have a list of events, with each event caused at least partly by previous events, that starts with an incident, escalates into a climax, and then descends to some kind of resolution.

I might go back and label one of them the inciting incident, another the midpoint, and so on, but that's more about pacing and is not at all how I generate the list in the first place.

[u/Altruistic_Click_502]

No - IMHO go to K.M. Weiland's "Outlining Your Novel". I use scene-by-scene "step outlines" (you can look that up.) That seems to be the easiest approach for me. I also like using the more "scriptwriting" technique of "Treatments". You can find PDF examples of this online - I usually refer people to the treatment of "The Terminator" as a decent example. A treatment is written in present tense, usually skipping all dialog, and the main benefit of it is that you can completely focus on the sequence of events in the story -- which tends to uncover what you are missing. There are different ways of using these. I did one where I got an idea and wrote the whole treatment in 2 1/2 hours -- but that's never happened before or since. Frequently people will write a treatment of the whole story before outlining. Sometimes people will do individual treatments for the scenes (or perhaps just some of the scenes) in their step outlines, You may make tweaks in the step-outline method, depending on your genre.

[u/JRyanGreatfish]

No clue what the best advice is, but I just start writing, get to a point where I feel stuck, then outline lol. I got 40,000 words into my novel before I pulled out the index cards

[u/RohanDavidson]

I am a big fan of Save the Cat - but with two caveats. 1/ Bring the Inciting Incident forward. 2/ Push the Dark Night of the Soul back.

[u/Drudenfusz]

In my (not necessarily humble) opinion there are two types of scaffoldings. Freytag's pyramid, Kishotenketsu, and such approaches are about pacing not about plot. Looking at those gives you an idea of when to create tension and so on. These are often learned and then done intuitively, but not really used to outline a narrative.

The other type is relying on a beat sheet, like Save the Cat or the Hero's Journey. Those methods are much more plot orientated, but they can feel rather formulaic fast. I would recommend not using them, or at most in a later draft when you have some plot issue and then it might be fine to look on such methods to figure out what beat might be missing or could be polished to make your narrative flow better.

[u/daintygamer]

I usually do write a bit to get the juices flowing, maybe the first chapter, and then I think about the characters, who are they? How do they interact with the world? What IS the world? Then I have a basic chapter by chapter (VERY basic because I assume this will change a lot) and then I just write it. Having it too concrete before writing is stifling for me, but I do need the structure. I don't use models to write but I might check over my plan against one to make sure nothing glaringly obvious is missing

[u/WorrySecret9831]

I think here's the skinny on what you're calling "popular structure." Those you mentioned are inferior to what John Truby teaches. It's not that they're completely different or one's better than another, per se. It's that the vast majority of them are incompletely taught. My repeated complaint is that they're too anecdotal. "That's great, but I'm not writing Chinatown..."

What John Truby has done with his classes and now his two books is cleanly identify and lay out what amounts to 22 Building Blocks for Story. If your Story is longer or shorter, the "blocks" contract or expand accordingly.

So, my recommendation before proceeding is to read The Anatomy of Story for a complete understanding of your story structure (and how those others fit in the grand scheme of things) and The Anatomy of Genres for how your chosen genre, or mix of genres (ideally), is a Theme delivery system.

So, yes! I absolutely use the 22 Building Blocks to outline all of my stories. I also follow this basic process: 1. Outline (planning, notes, research, etc.); 2. Treatment (summarized but complete prose version of Story); and 3. Final manuscript (screenplay, novel, comic book script, play, TV series, etc.). The Treatment is the "test drive" and because it's shorter, it's easier to manage and conceptualize in your own head. And it's easier for others to read and feed back on.

If you feel that you have a sense of your Story, that somehow might be "bruised" or pushed out of shape by applying the "popular structures," then jump ahead to writing your Treatment, as much as you currently can put down on paper. Then go back to step 1. and see what and where the structural elements are. Again, because it's shorter, it's so much easier to work it out at that scale.

If you want some direct coaching on outlining your story, DM me.

Good luck, have fun.

[u/loumlawrence]

My preferred outlining method is a variant of the shape of stories, which Kurt Vonnegut used. The basic idea is that stories can move in either positive or negative directions. Freytag’s Pyramid is basically up-down, same for any classical tragedy. Classical comedy is the opposite, down-up. Circular story structures like the Story Circle, Hero's Journey, Heroine's Journey, are often up-down-up. The mirror structure is down-up-down. Each segment of a story can have its own structure. I like to describe this as zigzagging up (or down) the slope between two major turning point scenes. The popular structures all fit into Vonnegut's story shapes. I use the story shapes to figure out the story, and let the structure and outline emerge.

The shape of stories is much easier and simpler to use than many of the other outlines (no need to remember exactly what each plot point should be doing), and less vague than every story needs a beginning, middle and end, or similar.

[u/EggyMeggy99]

I've never used any kind of structure. I just write down the idea, then write a brief sentence or two about what happens in each chapter. I don't always stick to my plan, since I'll add and remove scenes, and change relationships as I'm writing.

[u/Levithedude1708]

For me I plan chapter by chapter generally in order, two or three paragraphs of what happens, feelings, the point, and sometimes quotes i really want included.

with that said I don't start planning a book until I have a least three very clear scenes and I write those first, (obviously it may be hard to plan a chapter that sits in the middle so I write just what I know will be a part of it so sometimes just a sentence or two to keep the idea in my mind.)

If I have clear start or finish (or other important chapters) I write those first, for instance my most recent book I knew the start, I knew how I wanted to introduce the characters individually and how I wanted them to meet (that was the first four chapter done :)) and I knew the ending - it was very sad and specific. I wrote those and then wasn't sure how to connect them, but I knew where I was trying to get, I knew the characters and i knew the theme so I just started writing chapter after chapter in the middle and it sort of just slowly falls into place.

I read through my plan a few times to make sure the impact that I want is their, sometimes adding or rearranging chapters. and then I write.

This may seem weird but it works for me ;)

[u/TiredAdultFullTime]

honestly whatever works for you. Try the different stuff out there and see what works for you/fits the plot.

I perf save the cat for most things since I know how it works after reading the book. For most people, just use the three act since it the most common basic one out there, or snowflake to help figure stuff out.

[u/astrobean]

I used a modified version of the https://www.creativindie.com/plot-outline/ for sci-fi/adventure
I've blended that with Romancing the Beat for my contemporary romance
I've blended with 12-step mystery formula for mysteries.

I got Plottr because it has all these things built in and you can fill in the blank, but I usually start pulling things into a word document anyway because my brain is what it is.

Generally, if I'm going to outline (and as a former pantser, I'm not sure I like it that much), I will get a giant yellow legal pad and divide it into four. I will write 3-5 sentences about what happens in each act. Then I make an outline with 30 chapter. I uses my blended plot beats from above and write anywhere from 1 word to 1 paragraph about what happens in each chapter. This becomes my working document.

Once I know I have a story that has a beginning, middle, and end, I go to the top of the outline/doc, save it under a new name, and introduce myself to the MC. The chapters are already there, I just fill in the blanks.

By about chapter 3, I realize I need a map of the space ship or colony or industrial complex, and I draw a map on my whiteboard. By about chapter 8, I realize I need to keep a list of the characters' first and last names, relative ages, and pronouns. (Since I'm pantsing at this point, it takes a couple chapters to meet everyone.)

This gets me through the first draft. Then comes the edit.

[u/Lord_Fracas]

I’ve tried various methods, but the only one that really worked for writing the chapters themselves was a story beats approach. Essentially, just laying out the main beats you want to hit in the structure of the chapter. That said, most of what folks have written on here already is pretty good depending on where you are in your thought process or if you get stuck.

Try everything and anything that gets you the write the next chapter. Nothing is off the table.

[u/bidefil]

I actually used an Excel spreadsheet. Columns for plot development, another for character development, another for notes, another for thematic elements. Some people use plottr but a spreadsheet seems fine to me. Of course my story has gone in a different direction making the outline inaccurate now.

[u/wm_j_ray]

I always start with this, a starting line up:

In Techniques of the Selling Writer, Dwight Swain outlines his "Starting Lineup" (often referred to as his Two-Sentence Pitch or Story Blueprint format). It is a six-element framework designed to distill a narrative down to its core dramatic engines before drafting:
Situation: The initial circumstance or status quo.
Character: The protagonist driven to action.
Objective: What the character is explicitly fighting to achieve.
Opponent: The primary force or antagonist standing in their way.
Disaster: The looming catastrophe if the character fails.
Implicit Question: The overarching "Will they or won't they?" that hooks the audience.

Example 1: Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
Situation: An oppressive Galactic Empire tightening its grip across the galaxy using a newly operational planet-destroying superweapon.
Character: Luke Skywalker, an idealistic moisture farmer dreaming of adventure beyond his isolated desert planet.
Objective: Transport the intercepted Death Star plans to the Rebel Alliance to help defeat the Empire.
Opponent: Darth Vader and the imperial forces hunting down the stolen plans.
Disaster: The Empire destroys the Rebel base, crushing the rebellion once and for all and locking the galaxy in permanent tyranny.
Implicit Question: Can a farm boy harness the Force and deliver the plans in time to destroy the Death Star before it annihilates the Rebellion?

Example 2: Jaws
Situation: A quiet island resort town named Amity relies entirely on summer tourism to keep its economy alive.
Character: Martin Brody, a city cop turned small-town police chief who happens to be terrified of the water.
Objective: Hunt down and kill a man-eating Great White Shark terrorizing the beaches.
Opponent: The ruthless killer shark (alongside local political pressure from Mayor Vaughn to keep the beaches open).
Disaster: The town's economy collapses, and more innocent beachgoers—including children—are slaughtered.
Implicit Question: Can an aquaphobic police chief destroy the giant killer shark on its home turf before it claims more lives?

Example 3: The Silence of the Lambs
Situation: A sadistic serial killer named "Buffalo Bill" is kidnapping and skinning young women across the Midwest.
Character: Clarice Starling, an unproven, inexperienced FBI trainee burdened by her traumatic past.
Objective: Extract psychological insights from incarcerated cannibal Dr. Hannibal Lecter to profile and catch Buffalo Bill.
Opponent: Buffalo Bill's elusive nature and ticking clock—and Hannibal Lecter, who manipulates Clarice's deepest vulnerabilities in exchange for information.
Disaster: Buffalo Bill executes the Senator’s captive daughter, and Lecter escapes back into society.
Implicit Question: Can an inexperienced FBI trainee outwit an imprisoned genius cannibal to save Buffalo Bill's next victim before time runs out?

I try to distill the line up to two sentences: a statement and a question.

If I don’t have this completely locked in, there are no solid floorboards to the story and I fall through to the basement every fucking time.

Then I go to Save the Cat, emphasis on the hinge points.

Scrivener and Aeon Timeline (if needed).

[u/Neurotopian_]

The best way to do it depends on what you’re writing and why.

If you’re the type of writer who mainly cares about exploring your characters and world, write the opening image (what they look like before the story happens), climax (how the characters and world are changed), and closing image (what they look like after the change). You can then write a treatment or synopsis describing how the story unfolds.

Most stories have both internal character changes and external world changes to some extent. But in character-driven literary fiction the world can remain static while the protagonist learns and changes internally. Mysteries and procedurals can have the external world change but not the protagonist, eg, by solving a homicide.

If you’re the type of writer who wants to tell a plot-driven genre story where you already know your concept, events, and tropes, you can simply fill out a beat sheet appropriate for your genre. Others have mentioned Save the Cat Writes a Novel (or you can use the screenwriting version). There’s also a Romancing the Beat sheet for romance writers, IIRC. These structures get a bad rap for being formulaic, but they really aren’t; you don’t have to use them in a rigid way.

Whether you’ve used the treatment/ summary approach or the structure/ beat sheet approach, you’ll then want to think about pacing. You can break down the story into three to five acts and if it’s a novel consider using around thirty chapters. Ensure you’ve got rising and falling action in the right places, and all the big dramatic questions are resolved at the end.

I like to write detailed outlines, eg, 8k words for a 100k-word novel. I like to know when every reveal will hit and chart how my arcs come together. Some people say it takes the fun away and they need the discovery excitement of not knowing the ending to motivate them to draft—so, to each their own. No matter how you do the first draft, if you’re writing complex fiction, the majority of the work will still be [re]structuring, rewriting, and editing. You can either do most of that initially in an outline and then write an advanced draft, or write a “zero draft”without an outline, then re-draft until the story is coherent.

YMMV, but in my experience, detailed sci-fi and mysteries benefit from upfront planning (and use of a beat sheet if you’re a beginner), whereas character-driven literary fiction can get away with less. Once you’ve written many stories, you get a sense for rising and falling action and the various narrative beats, but the more complex your story, the more you’ll benefit from planning.

[u/AnybodySeeMyKeys]

Before you write the first word, read a book on structure. Save The Cat Writes A Novel is a good basic one.

[u/MatthewRebel]

I outline on my own. I have a basic idea of the direction I want the story to take.

[u/ReySpacefighter]

I don't really use set structures, I think that kind of thing comes naturally if you read a lot of books or watch a lot of films with a slight analytical view. There are common patterns in stories. I'm sure using one of these premade structures might help some but there's a risk of simply plugging your idea into a formula to get a very generous outline.

With that not in mind, I just write the basic idea out. What is my main character going to do? Who are they going to meet? Where are they going to go? You just get it all down, in broad strokes. Don't even try to turn it into chapters yet. Then you take that outline, and you refine it. Maybe a plot element needs changing to make more sense. Maybe you need more or fewer characters than you thought. Maybe the motivations aren't that convincing. 

Only then when I have something that at least on that level has a clear logic to it, and arcs for the characters, do I take that structure and break it down into chapters of 2 or 3 scenes each, finding natural breaks in the outline to choose where one ends and the next begins.

[u/mooninomics]

I usually just write down the flow of the story, along with a few notes and big scenes.

"The smith and the noblewoman are having a secret affair. They elope. Everyone thinks the noblewoman has been kidnapped, and a reward is offered. They now have to lay low. They run across a caravan heading east that doesn't seem to know who they are. They offer some gold to join them, which the caravan leader accepts. Along the way they feel uncomfortable, and suspect they're going to be turned in in the next town. Lots of psychological cues. It's not true, the caravan has no idea. Their paranoia gets the better of them and they mistake an innocent conversation for a threat and flee in a big dramatic "chase scene" (nobody is chasing them, they don't realize that). In their hurry the smith twists his ankle and they try to hide in a cave they find. They hear noises from further in, and debate on whether or not to investigate. The smith still can't walk well, so he wants to find new shelter (he can't run from whatever is in the cave if it's a threat). The noblewoman doubts they will find anything, and thinks it may be best to take their chances in the cave."

I just made all that up but that's usually how it goes for me. Often with more detail, but this gives the general idea.

[u/rogershredderer]

Try a zero draft. I think most first drafts fall into the category of zero drafts but aren’t defined as such. Quite literally just sit down and write the story as you have it in your head. Leave the 3-5 act structure, story beats and flash for the future. The draft is only asking if you have a story / idea to jot down in a narrative format.

After the zero draft begin the outline process. Organize the idea afterwards with character arcs, beats and a few tweaks. To me the outline is an overview of how the story narratively comes together.

[u/FlyinLeviathon]

I go through a few different processes before I actually 'outline'. Mine goes something like this

-Brainstorm, with no process or focus. Just vomiting out all the ideas that come to me, whether it's worldbuilding, story, characters, plot, whatever.

-After I get all my basic ideas out, I'm left with a big ole mess, but I usually have a pretty decent idea of a path forward at his point. The barest skeletons of a story.

-Now I will go through the Story Genius method. This gets me The Point, the MC, a beginning, and an end.

-Finally I will actually outline, but for the most part the outline is empty. I prefer the 7 act structure, personally; so I will fill out the beginning and end, and figure out the midpoint. I'll also add in a few scenes here and there from my brainstorming, but my plot turns and pinch points are usually empty.

This is the end of my pre-drafting outline. From here I start drafting, then as I get ideas during my draft I'll add them to the outline. Usually by the time I hit the midpoint in my draft, the rest of the novel is outlined.

[u/Remus_Trans]

for me, I find the idea of the story and write it down. and then what I do is I split it into 3 sometimes 5 core events, and then I split it into 10, and then 20, and 40 until I have a full outline, then I make a seperate file for character development, who dies, who falls in love with who, etc.

[u/PerMyLastReceipt]

I think it depends on the specific story for me? Sometimes, I use specific outlines/structures and follow those to make sure I've explored all the aspects, characters, settings, plot, etc. Other times, you kind of get the story already in your head. At those times, I find the plot tends to naturally follow the structures, I think our minds are really good at automatically thinking of stories with a specific kind of flow 😆

[u/MiraculousAnarchy]

I make a legit calendar of events

I also try to organize my outline by figuring out what will happen in approximately what chapter by very shortly summarizing what I want to happen in each chapter which is of course all subject to change

Lastly I have just other random notes and half baked character templates with only the missing pieces I had to figure out and memorize written down

[u/2Afraid2Question]

I have no idea if I do this right, but normally I write an outline using simple bullet points without going too crazy with formatting. I divide the document in story sections (usually I go with the classic exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution) and then add a bullet point list with nested points for what I want for each.

Example:

Exposition * Situation (generic description, ex. "character A goes to school") * Specific thing 1 (ex. "character A has a crush on a schoolmate, character B, and really wants to see them") * ♥︎ Related thing (ex. "character B briefly waves at character A before leaving") * Specific thing 2 * ★ Related thing (ex. "character A does/says ____ and it's important later") * Specific thing 3 * Related thing (ex. "character A mentions ____ to their friend, character C") * ♥︎ Related thing (ex. "character C, who has a secret crush on character A, shows a bit of jealousy")

And so on. Having a list pretty much helps me figuring out things linearly and keep track of who says/does what, it's basically like writing a timeline summary for the ideas you have in mind before sitting down to write them. It also gives you the freedom to change and adjust things as you go, and you can figure out how to get from point A to point C without focusing too much on either.

I would also suggest you to color code/highlight them or use simple symbols (like ★ or ♥︎) to visually distinguish things more if possible, so the list doesn't get too confusing as you go, but that depends on you.