How to Write a Book Outline (With Free Template)

An outline is a map of your book before you write it, and you can redraw it as you go. This guide shows six ways to outline, then two worked examples, one novel and one non-fiction book. For every step around the outline, see the full process of writing a book. If you’d like someone to check your outline and keep you writing, a book coach can help.

What a book outline is, and how detailed to make it

A book outline is a list of your chapters, in order, with a short note on what each one does. How much you write per chapter is up to you. There are three common levels.

Start with a skeleton. Add detail only where you feel unsure. Writing a memoir? Its outline follows the turning points in your life, so see how to outline a memoir.

Six ways to outline a book

There’s no single right way to outline a book. Pick the method that matches how you think, and mix them if it helps.

How to outline a novel, step by step

To outline a novel, start with what your main character wants and what stands in the way, then build the chapters around the story’s turning points. Our fiction guide shows the five turning points on a worked example.

1. Write the premise in one sentence: a character, a goal, an obstacle and what they lose if they fail.
2. Mark the turning points: the event that starts the story, the point of no return, the midpoint, the lowest point and the climax.
3. Fill the chapters between them. For each chapter, note what the point-of-view character wants, what gets in the way, and how it ends.
4. Check the chain. Each chapter’s ending should push the character into the next one.

Here are the first six chapters of an outline for our invented mystery, Ten Days in Kestrel Bay.

Premise: A ferry captain must learn why her late father tore the last ten days out of his logbook, before the person who wrecked her boat silences her too.

Notice that every chapter ends with something new. That’s what keeps a reader turning pages and keeps you writing.

How to outline a non-fiction book, step by step

To outline a non-fiction book, start with the promise to your reader, then order your chapters so each one answers the next question the reader would ask.

1. Write the promise in one sentence: what the reader will know or be able to do by the end.
2. List your reader’s questions. Write down everything a reader would ask, then group them. Each group can become a chapter.
3. Put the chapters in order. A common order is problem, then method, then result. A how-to book often follows the order the reader does things in.
4. Give each chapter four parts: the question it answers, its key points, an example or story, and the takeaway.

Here are three chapters from the outline for an invented non-fiction book, The First-Year Hive (chapter 3, on getting your bees home, is skipped here).

Promise: By the end, you’ll keep a healthy hive through its first year.

Outline a draft you’ve already written

If you already have a draft, a reverse outline shows you its real structure. It’s a quick way to see why a draft stalls or sags. To get a stalled draft moving again, see how to finish writing a book.

1. Read one chapter at a time.
2. Write one line saying what happens or what the reader learns.
3. Add a second line: what this chapter does for the book. If you can’t answer, mark it.
4. Look at the whole list. Repeated chapters, missing steps and a slow middle stand out quickly.

If the list shows bigger problems than you can solve alone, a developmental edit looks at the structure of the whole manuscript.

Free book outline template

Our free book outline template has separate pages for fiction and non-fiction, plus a reverse outline page. It opens in Word or Google Docs, and there’s a PDF to print. No email needed. Prefer to outline in an app? Compare the options in our book writing software guide.

Planning the whole book, with word-count targets and a weekly tracker? Use our whole-book planner too.

Outline mistakes that cost you later

• Outlining forever. When every chapter has one clear line, start writing.
• No ending. Even discovery writers often do better with the last chapter in mind.
• Chapters that do the same job. If two chapters make the same point or the same thing happens twice, merge them.
• Topics in no particular order. A non-fiction outline needs a reason for its order, such as problem, method, result.
• Treating the outline as fixed. Change it when the draft teaches you something better.

When to get help

You can outline a book on your own with the template. Help makes sense when you’re stuck.

• You want feedback on your outline and deadlines to keep going. A book coach reads your pages and keeps you on schedule, from $849, or try one session for $399. Our coaches work with fiction, non-fiction and memoir, including romance, mystery, thriller, suspense, fantasy, young adult, women’s and contemporary fiction.
• Your draft is written but the structure isn’t working. A developmental edit gives you an editorial letter of 8 to 20 pages, plus chapter notes. For fiction it is $330 for the first 10,000 words, then $0.033 a word.

Book outline questions authors ask

How long should a book outline be?

As long as you need to start writing with confidence. A skeleton outline is one line per chapter, which for a 20-chapter book fits on a page. A working outline gives each chapter a short paragraph. Complex plots, such as mysteries, often need every scene listed. Start short and add detail only where you’re unsure what happens next.

Do I need an outline to write a book?

No, but it helps many first-time authors finish. Some writers, often called discovery writers, find the story as they draft. Even then, it helps to know your ending and two or three key moments, so the middle doesn’t stall. Non-fiction usually needs at least a chapter list, because the order of ideas carries the book.

Can I change my outline while I write?

Yes, and you probably will. Drafting often shows you a better order, a missing chapter or a scene that doesn’t work. Update the outline when that happens, so it stays a useful map. Some authors do a quick reverse outline after the first draft to see the book’s real shape before they revise.

What’s the difference between an outline and a synopsis?

An outline is your private plan, chapter by chapter, and it can be as rough as you like. A synopsis is a summary you send to agents or editors. Publishing expert Jane Friedman recommends one or two single-spaced pages, about 500 to 1,000 words, usually in present tense, and says it must reveal the ending. You usually write an outline before the book and a synopsis once the draft is done.