The 3 Simple Steps to Writing a Powerful Story Outline
- rileytommy10
- Jan 3
- 3 min read
By Tom Riley
If you’re new to writing—or even if you’ve been writing for years—you’ve probably asked yourself questions like:
Where do I start?
Do I create my characters first or the outline first?
Do I need detailed character profiles before I write?
How long should my outline be?
These are all great questions, and they usually come from one place: You want to do it right.
The good news? Outlining doesn’t have to be complicated.
Over time, my outlining process has evolved a lot, and what I’ve learned is this:
A great outline doesn’t trap your creativity—it supports it.
Below are the three clear steps I now use every time I start a new story, and the same steps I recommend to writers who feel overwhelmed or unsure where to begin.
Step 1: THE IDEA (Your Story’s Foundation)
Every story begins with an idea.
Not a plot. Not an outline. Not character profiles.
Just an idea.
This is the spark—the thing that makes you curious, excited, or emotionally invested.
At this stage, your idea does not need to be:
Fully formed
Logical
Organized
Even good
It just needs to exist.
What to Do:
Write down everything that comes to mind about your idea.
This is a brain dump, not a draft.
Images
Questions
Vibes
Random thoughts
“What if?” moments
Example:
What if three friends go camping and realize something is hunting them—and it’s not an animal?
That’s enough.
From there, you might jot down:
A mountain setting
Isolation
Fear
One survivor
Guilt
Being hunted
No structure yet. No rules.
Why This Step Matters:
You can’t outline a story you haven’t captured yet.
This step gives you raw material to work with later, so you’re never staring at a blank page wondering what to write.
Step 2: THE ROUGH SKETCH (Finding the Story in the Mess)
Once you have your ideas down, the next step is not to lock anything in.
Instead, you begin to shape the chaos.
This is where you gently explore your story by answering four simple questions:
Who is this story about?
What problem do they face?
Why does it matter?
How might things change by the end?
This is still loose. Still flexible.
What You’re Doing Here:
Identifying the main conflict
Understanding what’s at stake
Noticing how characters might grow or change
Getting a sense of the story’s direction
Example:
Who: Marcus, a man forced to survive the mountain
What: A creature hunting him
Why: Survival, guilt, protecting others
How: He must confront fear instead of running
You’re not writing scenes yet. You’re discovering the spine of the story.
Why This Step Matters:
This is where your story starts to feel like a story.
You begin to see:
Emotional weight
Character motivation
Meaning beneath the action
This keeps your story focused and prevents it from wandering later.
Step 3: THE BULLET-POINT OUTLINE (Building the Roadmap)
Now that you understand your idea and your story’s core, it’s time to create a simple structure.
This is where bullet points come in.
A bullet-point outline breaks your story into key events, not paragraphs.
What a Bullet-Point Outline Looks Like:
Friends arrive at the mountain
Strange sounds at night
First attack
One friend injured
Desperate escape
Final confrontation
Sole survivor
Each bullet represents a turning point, action, or major moment.
Keep them:
Short
Clear
Focused on action or change
Why Bullet Points Work:
They make the story easy to see at a glance
You can move events around without rewriting
You can spot gaps, pacing issues, or weak moments early
They prevent overplanning while giving structure
Think of this as a map, not a cage.
The Big Takeaway
You don’t need:
A perfect outline
Detailed character biographies
A rigid structure
You need:
An idea you care about
A rough understanding of what the story is really about
A flexible roadmap to guide you forward
That’s it.
Once you have these three steps, you’re ready to write your first draft with confidence—knowing your story has direction, purpose, and room to breathe.
And most importantly?
You’ve started.
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