Why You Need a Book Outline and How to Write It

You might have heard the term ‘book outline’ tossed around when it comes to writing, editing, and publishing a manuscript – so what is it and where do you get one from?

The answer is what it says on the tin. A book outline is a simple breakdown of your book. It outlines all the most important plot points, so that it’s easy to tell, at a glance, various things about your manuscript:

• genre
• direction
• length
• format
• style
• character arcs
• plot

and so on.

A book outline is helpful because it provides a way to convey your vision to editors, literary agents or publishers without getting them to skim-read the entire manuscript (which takes far too long) or a short sample (which will not include important plot points and gives an incomplete idea). However, it is also incredibly useful for you during the writing process. It will show you any plot points that have been forgotten or unresolved, incomplete character arcs, actual plot holes, and pacing issues – all things you ideally need to fix before the editing stage.

How to begin

If the idea of writing this up seems daunting, start simple. You can make a book outline at any stage of the writing process – whether the book is just an idea in your head or a mostly-finished manuscript.

Start by writing the title (if you have one!) and your aims for the book. These could include character progression, romantic plots, themes, and stylistic approaches; they could also be a list of particular scenes or dialogues that you would like to see in the finished manuscript. Set these aside, but keep them in mind as you write the outline.

Step one: skeleton

Split the plot into sections and write those down. You can start as vaguely as you need to and then refine it as you go – e.g.:

Ring of Power is found

Frodo ends up having it

Frodo saves the world by throwing it into Mount Doom

This should loosely sum up the most important points of your plot. Then add more detail:

The One Ring is found by Bilbo.

Bilbo passes it on to Frodo.

Gandalf discovers it is a ring of power.

Frodo is sent on a quest to destroy it.

He saves the world by throwing it into Mount Doom.

And again:

The One Ring is found by Bilbo.

Bilbo passes it on to Frodo.

Gandalf discovers it is a ring of power.

Frodo and his friends embark on a dangerous quest to take it to Rivendell.

A council is held to decide what to do with the Ring.

The Fellowship is formed.

The Fellowship sets off.

The Fellowship is broken.

Various members of the Fellowship end up in different places.

Frodo saves the world by destroying the ring.

The hobbits return home.

Frodo leaves Middle-Earth.

Step two: delineate

By this point, you should have a rough idea of whether you will be splitting your book into parts as well as chapters, or even into separate volumes. Using the points you made above, divide the plot into these parts, and assign each plot point to a chapter or section. You can now look at pacing and use it to decide how long your chapters should be and how much each of them should cover. A particularly important plot point might span several chapters or even a whole book, so you can break it down further into individual steps and see how many chapters each of those would require.

Step three: specify

Now that you have your basic outline, it’s up to you what you want to do with it and how detailed you want to make it (this might depend on what you are using it for – if you’re using it to assist with the writing process, more detail is better; if you’re planning to send it to a literary agency, then a concise and simple outline would be preferred). An example of a finished outline might be a list of chapter names and short bullet points of what happens in each one. This enables you to see at a glance whether anything is missing or in need of further attention, and shows your intended direction for the book: beginning, middle, and ending.

And that’s it! It’s really just that simple. If you have any questions, you would like some help with the outline process, or you have a finished outline you’d like my professional editorial feedback on, just get in touch and I’d be delighted to help.

Image by Wall Boat