How I Outline My Books

How I Outline My Novels

As much as it pains me to admit, unfortunately there is more to writing a book than just writing. It takes planning, outlining, and far too much research. I get a lot of questions about how I outline my books, so today I’m going to attempt to answer those questions while giving my best tips and advice for how to outline a novel!

First and foremost, you have to understand that no two writers are the same. What works for one person might not work for everyone, and that’s okay. Everyone has different processes. In general though, I have always found it most helpful to keep it simple. If you have a simple outline for your book, and when you start writing you realize that it’s just not working, you can always go back and redo it. When I was first getting into writing full-length novels, one of the mistakes I made was trying too hard to stick to the outline. I drafted a ten-page outline and glued myself to what was written on it, and as a result, the story simply was not flowing naturally. I backed myself into a corner and ended up scrapping the entire story about 3/4ths of the way through.

These days I keep my outlines a lot more simple—they function more as organized brainstorms than actual outlines. All my notes, thoughts, ideas for scenes, put into one place and sorted into chronological order. Emphasis on the brainstorm—a lot of the times, my outlines are just bullet points on a Google Doc. It doesn’t have to be formal; I wrote the main timeline for The Wastelands Series on a Post-It note while sitting at a Dairy Queen! Some of my best ideas have come from simply brainstorming. My outlines always serve as a note-taking space rather than a strict guide. They exist to keep the story in line, but I if I get an idea to take it in a new direction, I never feel pressured to stick to my notes 100%.

I start by laying out all of the big-picture stuff and slowly work in the smaller details. Once I have a good idea of where my story is headed, I follow the classic plot outline system—exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution—to further simplify my ideas. Most of the time I will even fill out the little plot diagram chart to make sure everything is flowing as it should. Sometimes I will break down my outline chapter-by-chapter, but it’s never exceedingly structured. Usually about halfway through writing the first draft, I end up reworking the original outline to account for new plotlines/character arcs that I came up with while writing, and it’s typically at that point that I reorganize the remaining outline into that chapter-by-chapter structure.

My outlines also include more technical things such as character descriptions and worldbuilding elements. I keep a list of every important character in the story, alongside their appearance, personality, role in the story, etc. I also take note of any minor details that I want to remember for continuity’s sake, such as the color of an important object or timelines within the story. Oftentimes I will also take detailed notes about the setting, and I like hand-drawing maps to keep track of locations and their proximity to each other within the setting. Backstories about major characters will also be noted somewhere in the outline.

Again, this is all very loosely structured. I keep everything organized so I can find it later on, but I’m not worried about having every detail down on paper before I start a story. As long as I have the major plot elements figured out and a general idea of where the story is headed, I’m good to start the first draft. But not all authors are like that—some have to have everything perfectly detailed, and some don’t outline at all. It’s about finding your happy medium—whatever works for you. I’ve done it both ways. My first few attempts at writing a book, I didn’t outline at all, and those projects ended in disaster. Then we had the ten-page-outline fiasco as an attempt to remedy the situation, but over-outlining didn’t solve my problems, either. It took a lot of trial and error for me to land on the process I use today, and even then, I’m always changing and refining my style. Writing itself is an ever-changing process, and if something isn’t working for you, then don’t hesitate to try something else!

If you are a beginner author looking for more resources on planning and outlining a book, you can check out The Ultimate Writing Workbook, which is a novel outlining guide designed specifically for teen authors. It offers simple do-it-yourself worksheets that cover the plot, characters, and worldbuilding for your story, plus so much more! You can read more about it here, and you can also check out my free resource page for authors!