There are as many methods of plotting, not plotting, or barely plotting a work of fiction as there are writers on the planet, and outlining a book is a key part of this process. Indeed, everyone’s process can and does look a little different from everyone else’s, especially after extensive practice and personalization.

Yet we authors typically boil things down to two main categories that you might be familiar with: Discovery writers (or pantsers) and Outliners (or plotters).

Many writers begin life as pantsers—as in, writing from the seat of one’s pants—but later transition into plotters, as I myself have done. This may occur for various reasons, but the most likely is that the bone-bound mind palace we call our brains found itself in need of some authorial organization, or that a writer has suddenly found themselves with steady work.

There are few better ways to increase consistency and quality of output, and to keep track of important details in a long term project, than to simply write it all out in a defined structure.

You can find and try dozens of outlining templates and variations, many of which we highlight in our Fiction 101: Level 1 course—but we’ll take it easy on you this time. We’re starting with a useful, deceptively simple outlining template known as the 7-point Story Structure.

Outlining a book – this your first time here?

You may be a new writer, or an old one learning new tricks. Or, you may be someone who’s had their own outlining methods for a while but wants to dig deeper into what others are doing. Whatever the case, there are a few helpful basics to outlining a book that you can grasp before you begin the exercise itself.

The Basic Story Arc We All Know (Even If We Don’t Know We Know It)

Novel structures consist largely of patterns and trajectories, and the overall shape of a novel-length story is one that every story-hearer is familiar with.

We almost always begin at some sort of high point, or at least with some stability. We then progress through story-specific variations of plot and tropes toward a dire low point, and either resurge or at least resolve at the story’s end.

The magnitude of the highs, depth of the lows, and emotional height of the resolution varies between genres and authorial temperaments, but that main trajectory is nearly always the same. With these three “beats” alone, one could sit and sketch out a very basic frame for their plot.

The rest of even a loosely defined structure like this could be filled in with smaller structural patterns that come naturally to you—things ingrained into your psyche by long years of consuming stories.

Does your hero meet a series of ever-stronger opponents on his way to the big bad? Does your romance heroine return to their small town home just in time to fatefully meet their secret royal prince, only to face a sequence of situations in which she must prove herself to the royal family?

Whatever the appropriate pattern for your concept or genre, the important bit is to stick to it where the story’s weight requires support, and bend or even break it where the story concept calls for variety or surprise.

This whole book outlining endeavor is a bit like a musical jam session, where every player knows their part and what’s expected of them, but has the chops to mess around in playful and desirable ways.

So how about something we can play around with?

The 7-Point Story Structure for Outlining a Book

Developed by Dan Wells, author of I Am Not a Serial Killer and regular on the Writing Excuses podcast, the 7-point template is a low detail, high adaptability novel outline.

It derives much of its flavor and tension-building power from the two “Pinch Points” that flank the Mid-point. Each of these points describes a troublesome event that takes our conflict from bad to worse, and the second point is typically more catastrophic than the first.

This works well for writers who desire a strong series of waypoints to write somewhat freely toward in the spaces between. It can be broken down into chapters or scenes that expand on the sparse descriptions of each of the seven points, but you’ll find little guidance in this template for the flow of those scenes. That may be what you want.

You may see alternate interpretations of the points throughout the structure, but we don’t worry about that, because a little bit of conceptual chaos can only add variety!

To get started outlining, let’s take it from the top.

The Hook

Mr. Wells writes that the story’s introduction, the characters’ starting state, must cause the reader to ask, “What’s next?” This indicates an inciting incident that brings a juicy change to the status quo. Most likely, you already have this in mind for your story as part of the original germ for the idea.

Some interpreters of the 7-point structure consider the hook more of an introduction, with the inciting incident as part of the First Plot Point, but your interpretation is up to you. A little chronological looseness isn’t going to do us any harm.

A few examples: The orphan boy’s oppressed home life leads up to “Harry, yer a wizard!”; A man trying to reunite with his wife is thrown off the rails when terrorists take over Nakatomi Plaza; Wall-E is a winsome but bored and lonely trash robot, until a visitor from space arrives! He shows Eve a plant he has found. 

First Plot Point

What happens as a result of the Hook’s incitement? What new “journey,” whether literal or figurative, are we about to embark on? Are there external or internal obstacles to our character(s) doing so?

For instance: we’ve got to get out of town, but we need a car, or some friends, or a little pile of cash! There’s a lot of variation that can go into this beat or series of beats.

Pinch Point 1

We can't let everything settle yet, and we definitely can’t allow the characters to make too much progress too soon. So let’s trip them up with a nasty surprise! The Hook, intro, or a prologue—especially common in horror stories—might suggest this, or a completely blindsiding twist might deliver it in a way that makes perfect sense in hindsight.

Points like this can also be compound events. Terrorists attack Marty McFly, his mentor gets shot, he accidentally travels through time, crashes the car, and when he arrives in the past, he’s not just out of gas but also out of nuclear fuel for the time machine!

Other examples: an ambush, a rival, the law, a terrible storm, a murder, or even just leaving something important behind.

Midpoint

Proactivity is a must for almost all characters, even if some stories call for reactivity by certain character types to a certain degree. In most cases, the character should be proactive by this point in the story.

Often, we will experience either a temporary or false victory here, or otherwise an early seeming defeat. In this particular structure though, we want to leave room for the lower low of the second Pinch Point.

By now, if not before, our characters know what they want, or what the villain is really up to, or what it’s going to take to get to their ultimate goal, even if that still seems out of reach.

This allows space for new solutions, expanded scope of the world, and intrigue as our characters struggle to win or survive.

Pinch Point 2

What’s better for a good story than going from bad to worse? Many, many story structures and novel outlines call for such a low point, a “Dark night of the soul.”

This is a musical minor theme preparing the ears for a triumphant major key refrain, or the bass drop before a massive chorus. Very often we will wonder, “How can my character ever come back from this?”

Here are a few examples: Christ is betrayed and crucified, Frodo gets stung by Shelob, ET is captured and placed in the mobile ICU, looking all white and nasty, or the romantic couple sadly breaks up—could this really be the end?

Second Plot Point

Here all things begin to come together. Subplots tie in. The final rounds of long-awaited answers arrive. Our heroes ready themselves to storm the evil sorcerer’s tower, or our lovestruck heroine uncovers the truth—that her prince hid his identity to protect a heart scarred by past pain. There may even be a literal or figurative cavalry charge.

We’re ready to win, so what can we do from here?

Resolution

The highest point, or at least a return to stability marks the culmination of your outlining process. Sometimes a tragic downfall that makes our previous pinch points look like mere flesh wounds. The story comes to its natural, and hopefully somewhat surprising, conclusion.

Not mentioned specifically in Dan Wells’s version but often assumed is the denouement, where we see at least some glimpse of life after the Main Event.

In some action, in horror, and even in an instance like The Scouring of the Shire in The Lord of the Rings, there may even be one final resurgence of conflict, just to drive another point or theme home. Then peace, rest, even death, and we’re done.

Further detail when outlining your book

Now when you’re hunkering down to work and outlining a book to create the perfect gripping story, all this might seem like plenty to keep the narrative flowing. Soon enough, you’ll realize that you need more connective tissue between these seven main points, and you’ll wonder how to add it.

Writers with a discovery bent will have fun wandering the wilderness between plot points to find the perfect path through.

Plotters may find themselves struggling if they don’t work out more big beats, chapters, or even details down to the subscene level before they start drafting.

This is where your own sense of story patterns comes in. All that really matters is that you are enjoying the story, the world in it makes sense, and your characters stay true to themselves as you move from one scene to the next.

Just how you know what it takes to get from home to work on a bad day with bad traffic in bad weather, you can reasonably imagine what must occur to move your characters from a high to a low, or from stability and predictability into a juicy twist.

If you’re looking to fill in subscenes between your main seven points, start by sketching in the first things that come to mind, then their alternatives, their inversions, and any clever transformations that come to you along the way.

Mix and match to taste, read the whole thing through, and if you like it, keep it!

Another time we’ll get into combining outline templates to help achieve greater detail in planning, but for now, this is enough to get you going.

My book outline is complete! Now what?

You’ve got two options:

Start writing it!

Or, practice practice practice.

Just like the prose itself, your plotting and outlining skills will benefit greatly from extensive practice. You will find it increasingly easier to sit and plot a new (or old) story from start to finish, often in one go.

Imagine the difference in skill between plotting once every year or two and running through the process once a month or more!

A huge, unheralded boon to doing this is also in helping manage “shiny object syndrome.” Many of us authors have more stories in our heads than we can ever imagine writing, and often the newest concept shines the brightest, ruining our focus on the tasks at hand.

Outlining stories you don’t plan to write right away helps you preserve them before they get lost in the rush of thoughts and plans, and it also relieves the mental pressure that fresh ideas can bring.

It can even sometimes allow you to realize that, no, I do not actually want to write that story, or that it just doesn’t work. You’ll thank yourself for putting in the effort now, rather than jumping in and only realizing it doesn’t work after writing thousands (or tens of thousands) of words.

Now it’s time to Outline Your book correctly!

A final piece of advice: trust your outline, but don’t get married to it. Things might change. Your characters might misbehave in delicious ways. Let the story become what it wants, and allow alternate versions of your outline if they insist upon themselves.

If something doesn’t work, change it up and try again.

The best laid plans often go astray, and it’s much the same with outlining a book. But you win a war only with many advisors—and practice, your outline, and your growing storytelling skills can serve as the exact advisors you need to write your best story!

Of course, if you need help with outlining, we're happy to help. Check out our Fiction: 101 course, book a writing lesson, or contact us for more information on our done-for-you outlining services. And if you're looking for software to help you even further, we can't recommend Scrivener enough. Many of us use it ourselves to outline and draft our books.