How to plot your novel: 9 Best Outlining Methods
For most authors, writing an outline is a crucial part of their novel writing process. Aside from guiding them along the plot itself, an outline can help with the pacing of the story, its character evolutions and even with keeping the author on track with their writing. But while most novelists will outline their novel, the way they do this may vary greatly. Some will spend very little time on their outline, while others will spend months and even years preparing theirs.
What is a novel outline?
A novel outline is the basis for a novel. It may contain information about the plot, the characters, the setting… The amount of information and the format of the outline changes from author to author, however a good outline should answer the below three questions:
Who is your main character?
What is the inciting incident of the story?
What is at stake for the protagonist?
These are key parts of a novel. Beyond these three questions, you may use any method you like to provide yourself with additional information prior to writing your novel.
9 Best Methods to Plot your Novel
- The Synopsis Method
The Synopsis method of outlining involves writing a short summary of the story, usually 1-3 pages. This includes the beginning, middle and end of the plot, as well as key scenes, similar to a “Cliff’s notes” version of a story. While this requires thinking the story through prior to beginning writing, it allows for quite a bit of flexibility.
Some authors prefer an abbreviated version of the Synopsis method, in which they write the beginning and the end of the story as their outline, allowing for complete freedom in the middle. This is called Bookend Outlining.
- Index Cards
Using index cards as a method of outlining a novel is one of the more visual approaches, as the scenes or chapters from the story are written on index cards and laid out in order. This makes it easy to manipulate the order of the scenes, which can be useful when figuring out the order of a narrative. Index cards are often used in conjunction with other methods, such as the Synopsis method above.
- Key Scenes
In cases where the author is starting with only one scene in mind, or has a couple of moments of the story, but not the entire plot figured out the Key Scenes outlining method may be useful. To use it, you can write out those moments and build the rest of the novel form there as you write it. Because of the lack of structure, this is often a method used by more experienced authors.
- Character Arc Outline
In the Character Arc outline method, the author prepares a few paragraphs outlining the character arcs of the main characters in the story, for both the protagonists and the antagonists. Each character arc should explain the motivations and goals of each character, the story beats they are involved with and how they affect the plot.
- Structured Plots
Some authors prefer to use a more structured approach in their outlining and novel writing, using story beats or the acts of a story as a guide. How many acts are in a story or which story beats to follow are a matter of debate within the author community, with each author using their own variation. Furthermore, the genre of the story will also dictate the story of the structure to some extent, altering which story beats need to be used and in what order.
- Visual Story Boards
A whiteboard, a collage, a sketch, a flowchart… Whatever your preferred method, this is the most visual of all the methods. This may entail writing or images, anything the author prefers to guide them along their story. In some instances, it can also be used as inspiration for the plot alongside another outlining method.
- Snowflake Method
Created by Rand Ingermanson, the snowflake method uses small building blocks to create the story. The author begins with a single sentence summary of the story and using the method that Ingermanson created builds upon it until they have a full story. This is one of the most popular methods of outlining, and is beloved by many authors for its simplicity and straightforwardness.
- Spreadsheet Method
While Excel might be the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of a spreadsheet, novel outlining spreadsheets may be digital or on paper. It is used to organize the timeline of a story and is particularly useful in keeping track of multiple characters or intricate plot. J.K. Rowling famously used spreadsheets to keep track of what each character was doing in different parts of her novels.
- Story Bible
The Story Bible outlining method is the most detailed and time-consuming method. A story bible may be hundreds of pages long, sometimes longer than the novel itself! It can include backstories, character descriptions, history and mechanics of the world (for fantasy or sci-fi stories)… Any information that the author creates for the story, they include in the story bible. One of the first authors to use this method was J.R.R. Tolkien, who even invented languages for his characters that he included in his story bibles.
Whatever the method you choose, there is no right way to go about plotting a novel. Maybe one aspect of a method appeals to you, but only in combination with one of the others. There is no wrong way to go about preparing yourself for writing your novel, and usually some trial and error is needed before figuring out what works best for you. In the end though, your novel is what is important, so do what is best for you.
