The Novel Outline

Story Outline
Sample Story Outline (for general tips. It's for a shorter work, but it's one example of a basic outline.)

The elements of fiction from the Fiction Writing page of Wikipedia has some tips on forms of outlining. I haven't seen all of them used for any given outline, but I have seen some parts recommended, like plot, for outlining. Heck, outlining is plotting, essentially, so... ;-)

How to Write A Short Story By Paul Saevig He mentions in passing at the end of the article that much the same method is useful for writing novels.

The Synopses  A synopsis is the bare bones of a story, an outline at its most essential, sans subplots and side stories. These are some examples of bare-bones synopses.

How To Create a One-Page book or Screenplay Outline by MaxiiJ
 This seems to be a concise method, which incorporates some of the other methods of outlining that I've read, over the years.

Effectively Outlining Your Plot by Lee Masterson is an excellent resource.

Synopsis Vs. Outline by Vicki Hinze is an excellent guide and supplement to the task at hand.

Using Index Cards to Plot A Novel by Marilynn Byerly talks about the method of using index cards as a tool to help you outline scenes for your novel; the theory being that an index card is the proper size for outlining so that you don't write, say, a 10k-word scene summary. ;-)

Finally, Building Novel Templates by Rob Parnelli seems as if it would be particularly useful for outlining.

~#~

I think that the novel template and the index cards would be the most useful; what do you  think? With the other links for use as supplemental material when we need additional help with outlining?



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