Writing an outline step by step
This post should take about 10 minutes to read through.
I may earn a commission if you buy through my affiliate links.
Or: How I outline
Intro
This article is closely tied to my process when writing stories.
At this point in my career as a self-published writer and ghostwriter, I've written millions of words across more than sixty books. Of course, as you know by now, only two of them bear my name, The First Mage and Pathways of Light and Stone. There is one more where I'm credited as a co-author, though I didn't really author it but rather ghostwrote it for a client with whom I've become friends and who was kind enough to credit me. That book is Aether Loop and is a great book, go read it if you're a sci-fi fan, my co-author Thomas True is a great storyteller. The rest of the books I've written were either published by my clients in the case of those ghostwritten by me (and I won't mention any, of course), or self-published by me under different pen names that I no longer use.
All that is to say that I've written many outlines.
I've often received story notes from clients that weren't clear enough to be used as an outline as they were, so I've had to organize them, clean them up, and add everything they were missing (a service I charge for). Additionally, I've written outlines for clients myself from scratch with only the barest of ideas (again, an add-on service). And, of course, I've written outlines for my own books.
I'm in no way a pantser. I'm as much a planner as they come. I find it next to impossible to write without an outline. Even when I write for fun, with no intent to publish, I keep some very rough outline notes. If I don't have an outline, I stare at my computer screen for a few minutes, frozen and unable to write anything, then I alt-tab into my web browser and procrastinate for half an hour, before gathering enough willpower to return to my open Scrivener project only to stare at the screen for a few more minutes and then repeat the cycle.
I've written dozens of outlines. I've written outlines for stories I haven't written yet, and I've written outlines for stories I'll never write. At a glance, I know if my outline is detailed enough to write or if I need to spend more time fluffing it up. It's second nature, because I've gotten so much experience writing as a ghostwriter. As a side note, if you're a decent enough writer and looking to improve, picking up a side gig as a ghostwriter will offer you plenty of opportunities to hone your writing skills, and at the same time, to learn some of the most important secondary skills any professional should have: discipline and self-knowledge.
Preliminary outline work
Before I get started writing an outline, I work on my characters and world. I get the character profiles and worldbuilding notes as detailed as I can. I plan out character flaws, I expand upon the world magic, the history, its flora and fauna, and any systems I need to prepare. At this stage, though, these may be just ideas jotted down in a document.
I will definitely return to the character profiles and the worldbuilding notes and expand them as I work on the outline. Often, I'll expand them as I write the story itself. If I decide that a character is better suited to have red hair instead of black, I'll go and add it to their profile. Similarly, if I decide that dwarves wear little flags on their armor to show their rank, I'll go and edit the worldbuilding notes.
It's important that all these notes are organized. This is another reason I love Scrivener. I suggest you get it or try it out even without using my affiliate link, it's that good. Both the book and the supporting material can be organized in "folders" that act as chapters and "documents" that act as scenes, and thus, I can have a folder titled "biology" and inside three documents titled "humans," "elves," and "dwarves." This isn't an arbitrary example, it's how I've organized that particular segment of my worldbuilding notes for the Mages' Guild books. The same goes for "history and culture" with subfiles for each race, culture, etc. That way, if I can't remember what dwarf culture wears little flags to show military rank (it's the Gathargazian dwarves), I can quickly check without even leaving my writing software. Having the work area split in two columns, I don't even need to leave my active scene, I just check the side panel for the worldbuilding information I need.
Rough outline, or publisher pitch stage
I begin all of my personal writing with what I call "idea-gathering stage" or "pre-outline stage." I jot down disconnected ideas for the world, the characters, and the plot. Almost all of my stories have a core to them, something I can summarize in one line. For example, a couple of decades ago at this point, I wrote a story about a mage traveling to a dream world and exchanging arcane knowledge for food and services. The core of that story was the word "dream-quest," which ended up being the title, as well. (You won't find that story anywhere, I tried to get it published on some online publications but I didn't get accepted.) I won't share the core of the Mages' Guild overarching story because it contains spoilers.
As I nurture this garden of ideas inside my mind and a basic document, over the hours, days, months, or years this step takes, a story begins to take form. I don't create the story, it becomes apparent by itself. This is how I feel it, and it is almost definitely going to be different for you and other writers. For me, the core of the story reveals itself through the ideas that fit together perfectly, as if they were made to be together.
The first stage of the outline is writing the whole story in one or two paragraphs, under 500 words total. This should have a beginning, a middle, and an end; a clear objective, a clear story structure, a clear main character or characters, and a clear "purpose." Why am I telling this story? What am I exploring?
If this rough outline is good, if you like it, if it sounds like something fun to write, and if it's complete, then everything else should be smooth sailing from here. It forms as a basis for the whole book.
This stage can take a long time, but if you're focused, consistent, disciplined, and creative (remember, creativity is a muscle and ideas are cheap but that's not bad), it may take less. For the Bright Fantasy (working title) book I'm working on right now, it took me about two weeks of daily work. But for other books that are in the back burner, the time can be measured in years.
Some writers can start writing at this stage. They aren't the Platonic pure pantsers, but they're "realistic" pantsers, as in, they don't just start writing based on a whim but rather start writing based on a collection of ideas. I can't, I've tried to but I get in the procrastination loop I described earlier. The plotting mindset and the writing mindset are different enough for me that I can't do both at once.
Basic outline
At this stage, I begin to think of how the book will look like. I take the rough outline from above, and expand it into scenes. A scene is about 1000–2000 words of real story. I don't expand the scene notes yet, each scene should be a line or two of text, about 10–50 words. It should mention what happens, where, when, who's there, and I often include the why as well.
A scene should either:
- Advance the plot (story plot or character arc), or
- Showcase the characters (and/or the world, for fantasy and sci-fi stories).
When writing or plotting any scene you should be asking yourself, does it advance the plot by moving the story forward? Does it advance a character arc by having some character flaw hinder a main character's progress? Does it expand upon what the reader knows of the characters or the world? If not, remove it. Save it in a document called "unused scenes" if you pity it, but remove it. It's a waste of the reader's time, and wasting the reader's time is a major sin for any writer.
At this stage of the outline, many problems with the story can become apparent, and it's the perfect time to address them. For example, you might spot that the intro of the story is massive, much longer than it should be. In the three-act system, the first act (the intro) is a quarter of the story, the middle is half of the story, and the final act is a quarter of the story. So, if you have twenty scenes where you build up the characters and world, two scenes where they try stuff out and fail, then one scene with the final climax, consider cutting down the intro, expanding the middle and end, or approaching the story in a completely different manner.
You may see that the character arcs don't flow that well. Or that the story is too slow, or too fast. Or that you have too many characters, or too few. Whatever the case may be, it's easier to fix them when you are working on a three-thousand-word document than on a hundred-and-twenty-thousand-word one, believe me. Fix the problems, reread it, have your spouse read it, have a trusted friend read it, put it aside for a day then come back and reread it, and when you're ready, proceed to the next stage.
At this stage, the outline is a list of scenes, with very concise notes about what happens in them. Some writers can start writing at this stage. They're at the midway point between pantsers and plotters; they're commonly called plantsers. That's still not me. I'm a plotter all the way, baby.
Complete outline
For me, it's important that I finish each stage of the process before moving on to the next, and not progressing in a mixed manner by expanding one scene or another before the whole outline is finished at the stage I'm at. The reason is that the story must be complete and clear in my mind for me to be able to grasp it and work on it.
As I mentioned above, I know how complex of an outline I need to write a story. At this final step, I take the basic outline and expand the scenes. I clarify the when, where, and how of every action, I add notes on the why, and of course, add notes about character and plot arcs. I am not sure how to accurately explain how much detail I add at this point because it varies per the scene's needs. I have scenes where my notes say "the character fixes up his shelter" and other scenes where I spend a couple of paragraphs explaining what happens. Generally every action is mentioned, nothing is implied, and every detail that is important is also mentioned. I don't trust that I'll remember any idea I had while plotting when I sit down to write, so I jot down everything.
If you get a brilliant idea for a line of dialogue at this stage, jot it down. If you can clearly see in your head how a scene would play out, write more detailed notes. Any flash of inspiration you get, note it! Don't trust that you'll be able to recall it when you get to write the book. It might be weeks or months later, or even years. Do you remember a random idea you had on 12 July 2025? I'm sure you don't. I definitely don't. That's why I keep notes.
What I essentially want to achieve at this stage is to have an outline where I can sit down and write without needing to pause and consider how a scene would play out. I've figured the amount of detail required for this through trial and error.
I wrote The First Mage with an outline of a couple of paragraphs that I revised midway through the book. That was far from enough. I wrote Pathways of Light and Stone with an outline of a page or so. This was not enough either. I started the first book on 2021 and the second on 2023. Since then, I've written quite a bit, and have come to understand my process much better. Bright Fantasy Working Title's outline is about 20,000 words (about 60 pages for those of you unfamiliar with word counts), with about 3,000 words (just under 10 pages) of supporting materials (character profiles, worldbuilding notes, systems notes), with the aim of being about 120k words long (about 300–400 pages). As I've been working through it, it's been exactly perfect.
I wrote the outline for Bright Fantasy Working Title over the course of August to October 2024, and took a few days of December and January to finish an edit after my wife and my friend Menelaos read it and gave me their thoughts. I didn't have time to work a lot of hours every day, but I worked almost every day on it for those three months. It gave the story time to mature in my mind. I don't think that I could compress those three months of work down into a couple of weeks of focused work. Rest and time away from a story helps solidify it in my mind.
When the complete outline is ready, I strongly suggest handing it to your friends, family members, or a professional editor—better yet, a developmental editor. They will catch issues that you might not be able to see. Even if you don't, I strongly suggest you reread it a day or two after you've written it. I can't describe how many problems I've seen in clients' books that would have been fixed if they had just reread them after writing them.
At this stage, even a plotter like me is ready to jump in!
What now?
Now, write.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope it's been helpful. No matter where you are in your writer's journey, never hesitate to reach out for help. Even if I don't have a service to offer you, I will definitely have advice for you, and I'll be able to direct you to a great writer that has the answers you might need. But the most important thing you can do if you want to be a better writer is to write and to read. Write and read like your life depends on it! Write anything you enjoy, and read not only stuff you love but also beyond your preferred genre. A writer has got to be a reader first. If you don't read, you won't be able to write, and if you do manage to write something, I guarantee you, it will need a ton of work to polish (I've seen it countless times with clients), work that you wouldn't need to do if you had read a few dozen books first. (Audiobooks count.)
If you want to reach out, you know where to find me. Keep writing!