Use case
Fiction
Short stories through to full-length novels, planned chapter by chapter.
Short stories through to full-length novels, planned chapter by chapter so the plot holds together. Name your protagonist, the thing they want and the thing standing in the way. Approve the outline before a word of the manuscript is written, so the shape of the book is yours before the prose arrives.
Who it is for
Novelists, hobby writers and anyone with a story they keep retelling
Typical length
5,000 – 90,000 words
What to include in your brief
- Protagonist, what they want, what blocks them
- Setting and time period
- Point of view and tense
- Tone comparisons — two books it should sit beside
- Anything that must not happen in the story
Example brief
A literary mystery set on the Northumberland coast in 1987. Third person, past tense, close on Ruth, a harbour master's daughter looking into a drowning everyone calls an accident. Quiet, atmospheric, twenty-eight chapters.
Try this briefA shape that usually works
- 01The ordinary world, with one thing already wrong
- 02The event that cannot be ignored
- 03First investigation, first cost
- 04The middle turn that changes the question
- 05Everything held together collapses
- 06The choice, and the version of life that follows
Mistakes worth avoiding
- Approving an outline you are not excited by — change it before generation starts
- Giving a genre but no tone, which produces competent but generic prose
Tip: Choose the viewpoint deliberately; first person and third person read very differently.