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Writer's pictureLennon K. Riley

Developing the outline

In my last post about the writing process, I gave insight into how I get started by taking that one spark of a novel idea and turn it into a rough, sketch outline that hits the major beats. Now, I'm sharing how I turn that sketch outline into a full chapter-by-chapter outline that can be better used as a guide when drafting.


First, I start with a notebook and jot down the bullet points of all the beats. The number of beats depends on the genre and plot chosen for your novel. Typically, I like working with the 27-beat sheet shown below. A popular novel, The Hunger Games uses this as well. It's the best format for the YA fantasy genre, which I like to write. There are also 15-beat sheets that utilize most of these and can be used across genres.



outline doc

Second, I organize the scenes (beats) into the three-act structure in a Word document. From there, I can see what filler scenes are missing and if there's still some information I need but don't know yet before I start drafting the scene. I want to avoid getting stuck when I'm in the midst of writing.


27 chapter outline doc

Now that I have my scenes neatly written out and organized into their three acts, I take a look at which scenes could be combined into one chapter and which scenes need their own chapters once they're expanded and fully written out. Then, I'm ready to start numbering, titling, and adding descriptions and bullet points to each chapter. What goes into those descriptions and bullet points, you may ask? See below.


chapter outline doc

Once the above questions are answered, my chapter-by-chapter outline structure looks something like this:

Act I

Chapter 1: Cool Title

Brief one line description about the goal of this chapter: Why is this important? What is the point of including this chapter?

  • Scene 1: What happens? a. Setup (who are the characters in the scene, where are they, what are they doing there). b. Conflict (what do/es the character(s) want, what's preventing them from getting it). c. Outcome (how do/es the character(s) end up).

  • Scene 2: What happens? a. Emotional arc (this can either be at the start of this scene after the fallout of last scene's outcome or it could be added to the previous scene in the outcome portion of the chapter). b. What is learned? (again, could be added at the end of the previous scene following the outcome and emotional fallout or here in this scene).


Sometimes questions are raised by the character(s) and, if so, I'll note them in the outline in the setup, conflict, or outcome bullets. However, I don't include that as its own bullet because often my chapters answer my character(s) questions as more information gets doled out.


Stay tuned for more on my writing process. Next step? The shitty first draft.

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