# Novel Outline Template

An editable planning worksheet from GeekArt. Use it in any text editor, duplicate the sections you need, or copy the prompts into a notebook. No account is required.

Companion guide: https://www.geekart.ai/en/blog/novel-outline

The filled example, The Borrowed Signature, is original teaching material. It is separate from the GeekArt sample workspace. Its twelve turns are a summary of a proposed story, not a required chapter count or a novel-length formula.

## 1. Compact story plan

- Working title:
- Draft version / last updated:
- Reader experience or genre:
- Viewpoint and tense:
- Story time span:
- Protagonist:
- Concrete goal:
- Why the goal matters now:
- Main resistance:
- What failure or success could cost:
- Habit, belief, or commitment under pressure:
- Provisional ending:
- Alternative ending or question still open:
- Relationships or subplots that affect the main choices:

## 2. Major-turn card

Repeat this card for each event, choice, or discovery that changes the direction of the story.

### Turn: __________

- Status: PLANNED / IN DRAFT / OPEN
- Event or discovery:
- Earlier event, choice, or information that enables it:
- What the viewpoint character knows here:
- Available choices:
- Choice they make:
- Immediate consequence:
- What becomes necessary, tempting, or harder next:
- Connection to an important relationship or subplot:
- Setup needed in an earlier scene:
- Source passage if already written:

Status key:

- PLANNED: intended material that the manuscript may not yet establish.
- IN DRAFT: material supported by a passage you can identify.
- OPEN: an unresolved decision; keep alternatives separate from current story facts.

An outline can include the intended ending without giving the protagonist knowledge of it. Track author decisions and character knowledge separately.

## 3. Chapter and scene cards

### Chapter: __________

- Working title:
- Viewpoint:
- Entry state:
- Immediate goal:
- Resistance:
- Key decision or discovery:
- Exit state:
- Next pressure:
- Scenes needed:
- Optional word-count target / current count:
- Status and source passage:

### Scene: __________

- Place and time:
- Viewpoint and knowledge at entry:
- What the character wants here:
- What can resist or refuse:
- Action or choice:
- Result:
- What the reader learns:
- Why the next scene follows:
- Keep / combine / expand / reconsider:

A major turn can span several scenes. A chapter can contain more than one scene. Choose breaks and lengths for the story rather than assigning each turn an equal word quota.

## 4. Filled story plan: The Borrowed Signature

- Form: a proposed family mystery with a single central viewpoint.
- Viewpoint: Nora, a painting conservator.
- Time span: the six weeks before an exhibition, followed by its immediate aftermath.
- Goal: restore and present her late father's celebrated painting for an exhibition intended to help save her brother's workshop.
- Main resistance: incomplete attribution records, a reluctant former collaborator, and dependence on the father's reputation.
- Personal pressure: Nora initially treats protecting the family account as part of protecting the family.
- Sam, her brother: needs the fundraising promise to hold and withholds personal letters.
- Evelyn Reed, the former collaborator: wants accurate recognition and control over how her own material is presented.
- Jules, the curator: needs claims the exhibition can support.
- Provisional ending: a joint attribution is established; lost support forces a smaller future for the workshop.
- Open details: the warmth of the siblings' final conversation and how much of the opening Evelyn attends.
- Status: all entries below are PLANNED teaching examples.

## 5. Filled outline: twelve connected turns

### 1. Accept the commission

Sam shows Nora the workshop's overdue bills and the proposed fundraiser. She agrees to restore the painting and help establish its history. Her professional responsibility is now tied to a financial outcome her family needs.

Next: examining the object becomes part of an obligation she has chosen.

### 2. Discover an unresolved mark

Removing the frame reveals E.R. at the edge of the painting. Nora does not treat the initials as proof of authorship. She asks Jules to delay the final label while she checks the history.

Next: the curator needs supporting records before changing the attribution.

### 3. Follow the catalogue lead

Nora requests the old studio papers. Sam gives her an exhibition catalogue but withholds a folder of personal letters. The catalogue names Evelyn Reed as a former studio colleague, giving Nora a person to contact.

Next: she approaches Evelyn as someone who may explain the painting's history.

### 4. Hear a claim of collaboration

Evelyn meets Nora because Nora says she is checking the history. She claims that she and Nora's father designed and painted the work together. A surviving unsigned sketch resembles the composition but does not settle the attribution.

Next: Nora must seek corroboration while the publicity deadline approaches.

### 5. Approve a convenient partial account

Jules proposes calling Evelyn a studio assistant in the preview while research continues. Nora approves the wording to keep the fundraiser on schedule. The description goes into circulation without establishing that it is accurate.

Next: Nora is responsible for a public claim that new evidence may contradict.

### 6. Find a joint listing

Following the catalogue's reference to an earlier student exhibition, Nora requests its paperwork. A draft list names both artists beside the painting. She sends Jules the finding and asks to correct the preview.

Next: the question becomes why the joint attribution disappeared, and Nora must reconsider her own decision.

### 7. Lose cooperation

Evelyn reads the assistant label and refuses permission to display the sketch. Nora's promise of further research does not repair the misleading account.

Next: assembling evidence now also requires rebuilding a damaged working relationship.

### 8. Confront the family's preferred account

Sam asks Nora to keep the familiar label until after the fundraiser. She shows him the joint listing and refuses to endorse the solo attribution. Sam admits that the withheld letters include one about Evelyn's contribution.

Next: the earlier refusal to share the letters becomes relevant, rather than a new clue arriving without preparation.

### 9. Read the letter and face the choice

Sam gives Nora a letter in which their father acknowledges both the collaboration and his decision to submit the work under his name alone. Sam asks her to keep it private. Jules offers to postpone the exhibition while they decide what can be presented.

Next: Nora must choose the terms of the exhibition, knowing the cost to the fundraiser.

### 10. Renegotiate the exhibition

Nora puts correcting the attribution before protecting the fundraiser and pledges her fee toward any funding gap. She apologizes to Evelyn for the preview. Evelyn agrees to lend the sketch for a joint attribution; Sam agrees to display the relevant part of the letter.

Next: the revised exhibition can proceed, but its reception remains uncertain.

### 11. Change the public account

At the opening, Nora acknowledges the incorrect preview and explains the collaboration. The joint label, sketch, catalogue record, and letter support the account. A major donor withdraws a pledge intended to celebrate the father's individual achievement.

Next: the attribution is resolved, while the workshop's financial problem becomes more difficult.

### 12. Live with the consequence

Sam sells part of the equipment and keeps a smaller operation. Nora helps with the move and contributes her fee to the workshop fund. Evelyn contributes to a later display on her own terms. The family can continue working, but the hoped-for rescue has changed.

Resolution: the central authorship question is answered; the ending shows the practical and relational costs.

## 6. Filled chapter card: Two names

- Major turn: 6.
- Viewpoint: Nora.
- Entry state: the assistant label is public and the unsigned sketch is unresolved.
- Goal: find a contemporary record of the painting's presentation.
- Lead: the catalogue supplied by Sam references an earlier student exhibition.
- Resistance: the surviving file contains a draft list but no final printed label.
- Discovery: the draft list identifies the painting under both artists' names.
- Knowledge limit: Nora does not yet know why the later attribution omits Evelyn.
- Choice: send Jules a scan and request a preview correction.
- Exit state: the solo attribution is disputed; Nora has committed to correcting her own account.
- Next pressure: Evelyn sees the assistant label and withdraws cooperation.
- Status: PLANNED.

Possible scenes:

1. Request the student exhibition file by following the catalogue reference.
2. Compare the draft joint listing with the later solo attribution.
3. Decide to send the finding and request a correction.

Combine scenes when a separate retrieval sequence adds no useful pressure or discovery. Preserve the choice after the finding.

## 7. Repair a disconnected event list

Before:

> Nora visits Evelyn. She visits an archive. She argues with Sam. She reads a letter. She tells Jules the truth.

After, following the evidence chain:

1. Because Evelyn's claim needs corroboration, Nora follows the catalogue's early exhibition reference.
2. Because the draft list names both artists, Nora must reconsider the assistant label and question the later solo attribution.
3. Because she shows Sam the listing and refuses to endorse the familiar account, he admits withholding a relevant letter.
4. Because the letter confirms a deliberate omission, Nora must decide how to correct the exhibition.

The full outline also tracks the publicity decision and Evelyn's withdrawal. The shortened causal chain is a diagnostic exercise, not a replacement for every relationship scene.

Try your own:

- Current event list:
- What the protagonist wants in each event:
- What causes the next event:
- What becomes harder because of a choice:
- Repeated discovery to combine or change:
- Missing setup:

## 8. Discovery writing and reverse outline

For discovery writing, plan the next few consequential choices and leave later alternatives OPEN. After drafting a scene, record what actually happened before deciding what follows.

For an existing draft, repeat this short record for each scene:

- Scene / source passage:
- Viewpoint:
- Goal at entry:
- Key action, discovery, or decision:
- What changed by the end:
- What becomes possible or necessary next:
- Keep / combine / expand / reconsider:

Do this from the manuscript rather than memory. Compare the resulting record with your intended outline to find skipped decisions or abandoned plans still treated as facts.

## 9. Revision and dependency check

- [ ] The protagonist has a concrete goal and a reason to act now.
- [ ] Important people have their own reasons to cooperate or resist.
- [ ] Major discoveries have a lead, source, or prior setup.
- [ ] The character's response changes the next situation.
- [ ] The middle changes the problem instead of repeating it.
- [ ] The final choice uses information or relationships developed earlier.
- [ ] The ending answers the central question at the level the story promises.
- [ ] Subplots affect choices or have a deliberate role and resolution.
- [ ] Planned events are separate from scenes already written.
- [ ] Viewpoint characters do not use information they have not acquired.
- [ ] A changed scene has been checked against later dependencies.
- [ ] Chapter counts and word targets remain provisional.

Change log:

- Changed entry and reason:
- Earlier setup to reconsider:
- Later scenes affected:
- Character notes or story-bible facts to update:
- Superseded possibility, kept separate from the current plan:

## 10. Optional focused review request

Reference the outline and the relevant chapters or notes, then adapt this request:

> Read the referenced outline and chapter notes. For each major turn, identify the earlier event or choice that enables it and the consequence that changes the next turn. Flag missing causes, repeated discoveries, and knowledge the viewpoint character has not acquired. Quote the relevant outline entry or draft passage and name the file. Treat PLANNED and OPEN items as plans and questions, not completed scenes. Do not invent missing evidence or edit files yet.

Check the quoted evidence yourself. Choose a revision, limit its scope, and update the outline to match the passages you keep.