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Creating a structured outline can significantly enhance your novel-writing process. This guide explores the importance of outlining and provides essential building blocks for structuring your novel effectively.

If you’re starting to write your fiction novel, you might wonder if you need a structure and an outline. This, surprisingly, is an issue that authors differ on quite a bit.

You may be one of those writers who believe in just opening a blank screen and letting the words flow, yes, people actually do this; pansters (people who prefer to write a book without doing any planning), or someone who writes by the seat of their pants.

I want to be a panster, I really do like Stephen King, who is one of the more famous ones. He just lets his characters flow and come alive; he believes that too much structure is for bad fiction writers.

In a way, I can see that because too much planning can ruin creativity and the evolution of our characters. Sometimes you can’t plan out every detail, and you don’t want to be constrained when it comes to how characters interact with each other.

And honestly, I think I could do pansting for a short story or a short novel (is there even such a thing). But a novel that is around 90,000 words, I am not so sure.

For the rest of us who need to know what we are going to be writing about, and what our beginning, middle, and end may or may not look like, there is something called structuring your novel before you write.

Now, there are multiple ways to do this, and all of them are right and proven methods to create outlines.

I looked at a few and came up with a format that works for me, but for others, it might look different. Every structure typically includes some basic elements, and having basic themes and characters in mind can help you plan the direction of your story when structuring it.

The Disclaimer

Now, big disclaimer here: For sure, no one knows where the story will take them, and in no way should a structure limit where you want your story to go. But having an idea of some basic features can help to work towards a point where the words start flowing and you have something to write for. I know for some people this is not required; they can just write it out and are pretty sure their novel will take shape, but for others who have always written with planning and structure, not having any can be self-limiting.

Case in point: Me.

So before I wrote this, I tried structuring my novel. I created a structured outline using the building blocks below, and it really jump-started my novel-writing process. Before, I was unsure where to start, how to describe my main character, what the conflict and climax were. Now that I have listed them out, it’s become really clear.

I’ll share with you how it turned out for me, but here are the main building blocks of any non-fiction novel:

1. Character

So any novel starts with a character and supporting characters. For initial structure, getting the main character down and summing up who the main character is in one sentence can help you get an idea of how well you have developed that character.

I would suggest writing whatever you can think of; it doesn’t have to be one sentence. I just wrote down what came to mind, the traits I had already considered, so I’d have a record of what I wanted my character to represent and be. If you have a name, jot it down now. I thought of one already, so I did. It may change later, but for now, I have a name.

2. Conflict

Now we come to what actually triggers the story of your main character or the conflict. This is something that, up until now, you may not have given much thought to, but it is an important part of your novel. Your readers want to stay engaged, and if they know what the conflict or the disruption is that takes your character out of their normal life, you will have readers who want to turn the page.

3. Objective

Now that the main character is faced with a conflict or problem, how do they go about solving it, or not solving it? What is their objective once they are faced with this conflict? This can be many generic things that, as a writer, we can delve more into.

For example, their objective may be love, justice, greed, achievement, or survival. It could be more than one of these, or something altogether. It is not important to have it completely thought out at this point, but jotting down a few objectives or putting into words how your character will respond to the conflict can help to start the process.

4. Opponent

In the conflict, who is the opponent or the person or persons they are up against? Building upon the conflict and illustrating the friction the character feels when they are pushing against the opponent is interesting and keeps readers engaged. It can be more than one entity that is an opponent, and it can even not be a person, but something symbolic or nature-related.

5. Climax

This is where the peak of the conflict between the opponent and the main character comes into play. This is where your writing will build to a climax, where readers will eagerly turn every page to discover the outcome. Will your main character survive, or will the opponent prevail? What will be the fallout of the climax, and the impact of it on the characters’ lives and personal belief systems?

6. Resolution/Reflection

How is the novel resolved, or what are the final reflections of your main character? Sometimes the resolution is just a reflection, and sometimes things are not resolved at all. This is where you can create a surprise for your readers and decide how you would want the novel to take its natural course to an ending you are satisfied with.

The Results?

I found the direction of my story expanding when I structured it, and I realized that there are some other themes that I wanted to include. It really made me think of the trigger and the climax. It literally gave me a point of reference before I started writing and clarified fuzzy ideas in my head that I had never thought through.

And maybe you could be both a planner and a panster, so you are a planster. You could follow the rough outline or structure I detailed above and then just start running with your words rather than planning the small details.

For me, simply jotting down major details under nice headings has already motivated me to write the first word. I think for some, planning might not be what they do to complete a novel; it’s what they do to start it.

I have a main character, some supporting ones, a conflict, opponents, and possibly a climax and resolution. Those two are not so clear yet. But I am getting there….

What kind of structuring or outline format do you use?

Next up: Exploring writing software and sites that can help you stay organized and roadmap your novel to completion. Stay tuned.

Originally published for New Writers Welcome on Medium on September 23, 2025.