Creating a Book Outline

Using plot points to get the story moving

Stefani Vader
3 min readOct 29, 2024
Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash

You come up with a great story idea, but get stuck with how to get started. That used to happen to me all the time. Now when I come up with an idea it usually only takes me a day to plot out the entire story line.

It all starts with a one page document. On this page I will list out the main characters, give them names ages and professions. I’ll describe the setting. If there is any romance in the story I’ll state how they met.

The most important part, in about two sentences I’ll state the main plot of the story. For example, the story I’m currently outlining. those two sentences are:

Addie inherits her sisters house after she drowned to death…or did she? If not accidental, who caused it, why, and what will happen to Addie when she starts digging for the truth?

With those two sentences I can now decide who is going to be the antagonist and what they are going to do to Addie to keep her from finding out what really happened.

Once this is done its pretty easy to start the actual planning. First chapter needs to introduce the character and setting. I like to put in a bit of foreshadowing so the reader wants to keep reading.

--

--

Stefani Vader
Stefani Vader

Written by Stefani Vader

Lover of reading and writing. Hater of retail work. Small fish in a big pond, learning as I go.