Novel outline: [Working title]
Story at a glance
Genre | |
Target length | |
Setting | |
Time span | |
Point of view | |
Comparable titles |
Premise
Write the ending now, even as a guess.
Premise:
Logline:
Dramatic question:
Ending:
See an example premise
Premise: What if a lighthouse keeper found a letter addressed to her by name, posted to the island thirty years before she was born?
Logline: When a relief keeper on a storm-cut island finds a letter written to her before her birth, she must find out who sent it before the winter boat takes her off, but the one person who knew the old keepers is the father who left her.
Dramatic question: Will Elin learn who wrote the letter, and will she leave the island once she knows?
Ending: She finds the writer's grave on the mainland and goes back for one more winter, not to hide this time, but to keep the light for the next keeper.
A logline that works has the same parts: when (the inciting incident), (the protagonist) must (the goal) before (the deadline), but (the main obstacle).
Main characters
Protagonist | Antagonist | Ally, mentor or rival | |
Name | |||
Wants | |||
Needs | |||
In the way | |||
Arc |
Plot in three acts
Rough positions in the finished book, by word count.
What each turn does
Inciting incident: the event that breaks the ordinary world and starts the story.
End of act one: the choice that commits the protagonist to the conflict and closes the door behind them.
Pinch points: the opposition shows what it can do, then closes in and raises the cost.
Midpoint: a revelation, false victory or false defeat that changes the goal. The protagonist stops reacting and starts acting.
Low point: the plan fails, and they lose what they were counting on.
Turn: what they realize or decide that sends them into the finale.
Climax: the confrontation that answers the dramatic question, decided by the protagonist's own choice.
Resolution: the new normal, and what the change cost.
Act I: Setup (the first quarter)
Opening:
Inciting incident (10%):
End of act one (20–25%):
Act II: Confrontation (the middle half)
First pinch point (37%):
Midpoint (50%):
Second pinch point (62%):
Low point (75%):
Act III: Resolution (the last quarter)
Turn (80%):
Climax (85–90%):
Resolution:
Outline the turns, not every scene. If you know the inciting incident, the midpoint, the low point and the climax, the chapters between them can be found while you draft. A middle that sags usually has a midpoint that changes nothing: make it change the goal.
Chapter by chapter
Ch | POV | Summary | Purpose |
1 | |||
2 | |||
3 |
Mark the chapters that carry a turn, e.g. (Midpoint).
Subplots
Subplot | Who | Opens, turns, closes | How it touches the main plot |
Theme and motifs
Theme question:
The protagonist's answer at the start:
Their answer at the end:
Motifs, and the chapters they recur in:
Notes
Open questions, research, plants and payoffs, parked ideas.