How to Create a Plot Outline in Five Easy Steps

I’ll happily admit that I’m not a plotter. I have story ideas, but I find sitting down to actually map those ideas out into a manageable form to be a chore. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool pantser, and always have been.

With that said, however, it’s not always practical or possible for me to just dive into a project without a plan. If I’m on a deadline, or if I’m ghostwriting for someone, then the possibility of winging it goes right out the window. Because as much as I enjoy the process of discovery writing a lot more, there’s no denying that I’m less productive than when I have a plan to work from.

It took me a while to find a process of outlining that works for me and my distaste for it. But a clear, flexible plot outline does give you a strong foundation for diving into your draft, and helps keep momentum up if you get stuck on a scene. Knowing where you need to go next stops a lot of common forms of writer’s block, because you can skip what’s blocking you and move onto something you’ve already prepared.

Step 1: Think of a Premise

A premise is your story’s core: a specific “what if” that names the protagonist, the event, what they’ll try to do, and what’s at stake if they fail. It captures the engine of the plot by giving your narrative a cause, goal, and consequence.

Try this template to simplify coming up with a premise: When [protagonist] faces [catalyst], they must [goal] or else [stakes].

For example:

• When [a shy botanist] faces [a corporate plan to foreclose on her nursery], she must [fight them in a court of law] or else [lose her home and livelihood].

Step 2: Get to Know Your Characters

Characters drive your plot. Readers experience your story’s events through them and the way they move through their world. As a writer, you need to know what they want, why they want it, and what stands in the way.

Use the GMC template (Goal, Motivation, Conflict) to get a good grip on your characters’ internal and external lives before writing:

• Goal: What are they trying to achieve?
• Motivation: Why do they want it?
• Conflict: What blocks them (e.g. antagonist, system, inner flaw)?

If you want, you can add layers, but GMC is enough to get started if you’re really not a plotter. But if you want to add more information, then these are the most essential to get you writing as quickly as possible:

• Relationships: Who challenges or supports them?
• Values and fears: What lines won’t they cross and what terrifies them?
• Change: How do they view themselves at the beginning versus the end?

Using our botanist (let’s call her Jasmine) example from above, we could set it out as follows:

• Goal: Jasmine wants to save her family’s business (external), and make her dead father proud (internal).
• Motivation: Jasmine wants to protect her home and ensure the ongoing employment of her staff (external). She also wants to prove that she has what it takes to run a successful business and honour the legacy of her father, who built it from the ground up (internal).
• Conflict: A corporate rep starts a smear campaign that frames Jasmine’s nursery as a code violator, allowing him to fast-track permits and pressures the council into a foreclosure (external). Her own fear of confrontation and shy personality make fundraising and advocacy harder (internal).

Step 3: Establish Your Setting

Your story setting is more than just set dressing. It can create constraints and opportunities for your character, and even affect the mood and tone of your story. You can make setting work for your plot in really interesting and innovative ways, so starting off with a strong idea of your primary story setting will set you off on the right foot.

Questions to ask yourself before you write might include:

• Rules: What systems, laws, or cultural norms shape the actions your characters take?
• Resources: What is scarce or abundant? Who controls it?
• Hazards: What makes choices riskier (weather, politics, magic)?
• History: What happened before the story that still matters now?

Let’s return to Jasmine and the primary setting of her Nursery.

• Rules: Because her nursery is in a village abutting a national park, conservation bylaws, seasonal water limits, and a planning board that meets monthly affect the way she runs her business. The designation as a national park gives Jasmine a legal foothold to challenge the developer’s fast‑tracked permits, but those same bylaws make countering any alleged claims of “code violation” costly and time‑sensitive.
• Resources and power: Rare native seed stock, loyal volunteers, and a supportive community are Jasmine’s assets, whereas the developer controls cash, media connections, and greedy councillors.
• Hazards: Spring floods, surprise inspections, and smear‑driven fines raise the price of every misstep.
• History: Her father founded the nursery with a goal to help the National Park Service rewild the surrounding woodland with native plant species. That legacy binds Jasmine to the land and gives her a story to rally outside donors to her cause.

Step 4: Create a Timeline

A timeline turns your ideas into a story arc. To stop writer’s block and keep up the momentum, it helps to map the major story beats so you know where your narrative is going.

I like to use a simple beat sheet when planning out my story, but you can use any framework that works for you. I keep it simple because again; I don’t really enjoy planning, and I’ll veer off the path if I get too specific.

Beat checklist:

• Hook: A moment that signals genre and stakes early.
• Inciting incident: The change that forces action.
• First threshold: The protagonist commits to the action with no easy retreat.
• Midpoint: A truth, reversal, or bigger risk that reframes the plan.
• Lowest point: The protagonist is confronted by the stakes and forms a new resolve.
• Climax: A confrontation that answers the core question.
• Resolution: Show the cost and how the character is changed.

So Jasimine’s story might look something like this:

• Hook: Jasmine finds a red “FORECLOSURE/INSPECTION” notice taped to her greenhouse door.
• Inciting incident: A surprise inspection issues fines and posts a temporary closure.
• First threshold: Despite her fear of confrontation, Jasmine commits to fighting: she files for an injunction, launches a public fundraiser, and agrees to speak at a council meeting.
• Midpoint: An employee uncovers emails showing a councillor coordinating the smear campaign with the developer. Jasmine also discovers a tray of rare native seedlings that could trigger stronger habitat protections if verified.
• Lowest point: A storm floods the creek and damages the nursery, making Jasmine question if the rebuild will be worth it. She seriously considers selling, but changes her mind after an outpouring of community support.
• Climax: A field ecologist’s verification of the rare species she maintains provides proof of forged violation claims made by the developer. At a public hearing, the community comes out to support Jasmine as she reveals the developer’s schemes.
• Resolution: Jasmine’s forced foreclosure is denied and her fines are rescinded. She partners with the National Park Service to expand the nursery’s rewilding work, stepping into a leadership role with them. The Nursery stays open, but her role as an activist for environmental causes expands, letting her honour her father’s legacy on her own terms.

As you can see, the above includes only major story beats, and does not really involve much of the detail that we’ve included in the earlier steps of our planning roadmap. The reason for this is simple; we already know that information. We don’t need to include it in the story beats, because it’s information already in our heads that will come out naturally when we write. It lets us know direction without being too prescriptive.

Step 5: Brainstorm Some Scenes

Now that you know your plot’s main events, think of some important scenes that might happen within that plot. What needs to happen to get you from point A to point B?

Brainstorming scenes that will move your story along lets you set your narrative’s pace in advance. Place those scenes on your timeline to get a clearer picture of where your story might need more developing, or is too packed with content.

This isn’t the most necessary part of the plotting process, but I like to include it, because once you’ve written your connective scenes, you’ve actually done a big part of the writing already.

You don’t have to write chronologically, so this method works for me because it essentially transitions me from planning to writing with no interruption. If there’s no break between the two, then my brain never has a chance to be overwhelmed by the “getting started” part, because I’ve already done exactly that!