How to Use a Skeleton Outline to Plot Your Novel

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(Step 2 in the Novel Writing Roadmap series.)

If you followed step one, then you’ll already have a premise, which is the backbone of your story.

The story skeleton is where we give your plot a few more bones, and see how it starts to take shape.

(If you haven’t done a premise, then it’s no big deal, you can create your plot outline without, and you can go back to it later if you decide you want to).

Luckily for us, we don't have to grope around in the dark, guessing at what elements we should include in our story and in what order, to create a gripping and satisfactory story with a good beginning, middle and end.

That's because research shows that there is a common template that the vast majority of popular stories follow.

 

Background

This story commonality was discovered by Joseph Campbell, who studied myths and stories across many different cultures since the dawn of storytelling. While doing so, he discovered many of the same elements kept coming up over and over again, regardless of location or era.

In 1949 Campbell condensed what he found into what he called the Monomyth, seventeen stages which take a hero from their ordinary world through a series of tests and trials, to a final climax.

The Monomyth has been interpreted many different ways over the decades, the most well-known of which is the Hero’s Journey, by Chris Vogler.

Other story professionals, such as Michael Haugue and Allen Palmer have added their own analyses and interpretations based on books and movies that move us and gain wide popularity.

Our Universal templates brings together all the most popular structures and elements into a simplified set of stages, which is designed to be specific enough to give you a solid structure to work in, but broad enough to be open to an infinite number of interpretations.

Once you’re familiar with the universal plot outline, you will start to notice these stages popping up in every book you read and movie you see.

First we’ll take a look at the full list of stages, then we’ll go into detail about what each of them consists of.

The Universal Story Skeleton

Act 1	Act 2	Act 3
The Status Quo	The New World	Final conflict
The Complication	External Obstacles	Return Home
Crossing the Threshold	Temptation
	Dark Moment

Let’s look at each of the stages in detail.

We’ll provide examples of how each of these stages are represented in: The Hunger Games, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, The Handmaid’s Tale and The Lion King.

As you will see, stories interpret the stages in different ways, for example the order of the stages is mixed up in the Lion King.

Once you’re familiar with the stages, you can either follow them closely or veer wildly from their traditional interpretation – the choice will depend on the effect you want to create.

Act I

The Status Quo

Introduce the main character’s world and establish their want (what they think will make them happy) and their need (what will actually bring them happiness).

The character clearly has something missing from their life and they are unsatisfied with their current existence.

 

Story	The Status Quo
The Hunger Games	Katniss lives in a bleak world, where she is forced to shoot squirrels for food. She wants her family to survive. She needs to maintain her humanity.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone	Harry lives with his Aunt, Uncle and Cousin, who treat him unfairly and make his life a misery. He wants his real parents. He needs love and friendship.
The Handmaid’s Tale	Offred is forced to live as nothing more than a breeding vessel, with no freedom or rights. She wants to stay out of trouble. She needs to be treated like a human.
The Lion King	Simba is heir to the plains, with a loving family and friends. He wants to be able to do whatever he wants. He needs to learn that with power comes responsibility.

 

The Complication

Something happens to shake the character’s world, and offers them an opportunity, or creates a threat.

The hero may respond to the complication by accepting the challenge, refusing it, ignoring it, or something else.

Story	The Complication
The Hunger Games	Katniss’s little sister, Prim, is selected to take part in the Hunger Games, where she will almost certainly be killed. Katniss immediately volunteers to take her place.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone	Harry receives an invitation to a magical school.
The Handmaid’s Tale	The doctor offers to impregnate Offred.
The Lion King	Simba’s father dies and Simba believes it’s his fault. He is filled with guilt and shame, and flees.

 

Crossing the Threshold

The character crosses some kind of barrier (could be physical but doesn’t have to be), which means it is not possible to return to their old life.

Story	Crossing the Threshold
The Hunger Games	Katniss travels to the Capitol and enters the Hunger Games Arena.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone	Harry travels to Hogwarts and moves into the dormitory.
The Handmaid’s Tale	Offred enters the Commander’s office and begins secretly spending time with him.
The Lion King	Simba travels through the thorns and baking desert to a new and different jungle world.

 

Act 2

The New World

The character is now in a new and unfamiliar situation, trying to navigate unknown rules and challenges. There is often a mentor character who gives guidance on how to survive the new world and provides the hero with helpful items.

Story	The New World
The Hunger Games	Katniss must battle for survival in the Hunger Games Arena, which is rife with things that want to kill her, while also ingratiating herself with the public.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone	Harry must navigate a school where nothing is ordinary, including classes, bullies and friends.
The Handmaid’s Tale	Through the Commander Offred learns more about the secret underground side of their society.
The Lion King	Simba learns about a new carefree, vegetarian lifestyle with Timon and Pumba.

 

External Obstacles

The character must face a series of conflicts, each of increasing difficulty and stakes. Some they will win, some they will lose.

At this stage the obstacles tend to be more external, whereas later in the story the hero will be forced to face the worst demons of all – the ones that live inside.

Story	External Obstacles
The Hunger Games	The other tributes try to kill Katniss, she has to win her weapon from the Cornucopia, she discovers her ally is working with her enemies, a fireball severely burns her leg.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone	Snape and Draco bully him, a troll attacks his friend, he gets caught out of bed after hours and is punished.
The Handmaid’s Tale	Offred must navigate Jezebels, keep her affair with Nick secret, take part in group executions, and deal with Ofglen’s requests for her to gather information.
The Lion King	The hyenas attack Simba and Nala as cubs, he’s caught in a Wildebeest stampede (out of linear order).

 

Temptation

The character should be faced with the choice between their want and their need. They are finally being offered what they’ve wanted all along, but if they accept it, they know they will sacrifice what they really need forever.

This frequently happens at the midpoint of the story to avoid the ‘sagging middle’ syndrome, by providing a highly charged emotional scene.

Story	Temptation
The Hunger Games	Katniss wants to survive, but she needs to maintain her humanity. To win the games she will have to kill Peeta. But if she does so, she will have lost her humanity.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone	Harry wants his parents, and becomes obsessed with seeing them in the enchanted mirror. But if he stays there too long he will miss out on his real life, which contains real people who love him.
The Handmaid’s Tale	Offred wants to stay out of trouble, but she needs to be treated like a human. If she has an affair with Nick she is risking serious consequences, but he makes her feel like a person again.
The Lion King	Simba wants to hide away and not accept his responsibilities. But if he doesn’t go home and face his fears, his family and pride will suffer.

 

Dark Moment

The character loses everything, and falls into a pit of despair. It seems that there is no way to recover from this and all is lost. But after wallowing for some time, the character finds one last ounce of willpower, picks themself up and prepares for one, crazy, against the odds, last-ditch attempt.

Story	Dark Moment
The Hunger Games	Rue is killed.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone	Harry is caught sneaking around after hours and is punished, causing Gryffindor house to drop to last place. He is shunned.
The Handmaid’s Tale	Ofglen is gone, probably hanged herself rather than be punished by the secret police.
The Lion King	Simba admits to his mother that he’s responsible for Mufasa’s death.

 

Act 3

Final conflict

The character should face their nemesis at the end of the story, and show how they have changed from the person they were at the beginning of the story.

Story	Final Conflict
The Hunger Games	When the Game Makers change the rules, giving her no choice but to kill Peeta. She refuses, threatening to commit suicide rather than lose her humanity by killing Peeta.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone	With the help of his friends, Harry makes it through a series of enchanted obstacles and faces Voldemort.
The Handmaid’s Tale	With the secret police coming for her, Offred has to choose between suicide and trusting Nick when he says it’s actually the resistance coming to save her.
The Lion King	Simba battles Scar

 

Return Home

After the final conflict, loose ends can be tied up, and the hero’s new world depicted. In the vast majority of cases, the hero will have made the right decision and chosen their need over their want. Sometimes, making this correct decision leads them to also unexpectedly win their want as well, as an added bonus. The protagonist is seen as emotionally evolved, a whole and complete person.

Story	Return Home
The Hunger Games	Katniss returns home a hero. She has maintained her humanity and improved her home situation.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone	Harry returns home to his mean family, but now they fear and respect him, and he has a future with his Hogwarts family to look forward to.
The Handmaid’s Tale	Nick did arrange for Offred to escape, but we have no idea whether she remained safe or was recaptured.
The Lion King	Simba and Nala have their own cub ready to take its place in the circle of life.

 

Specific Genre Plot Outlines

While most stories follow these stages, each genre also has its own specific features and nuances.

We’ve created a collection of genre specific plot outlines as follows:

• The Hero’s Journey
• Character Driven
• Detective Noir
• Romance
• Mystery / Crime Thriller
• Screenwriting Stages and Turning Points

These Story Templates can be found in the Novel Factory Online in the Planning section, Plot Outline tab.

Click the button 'Select Story Template' to access them. Each Story Template has its own unique stages, with each stage described and explained.

These genre specific Plot Outlines can also be downloaded as PDFs here.

Your Task

In the Novel Factory Online, go to the Planning section, and click the Plot Outline tab. Click 'Select Story Template' then choose from the templates. Complete the right hand column for your story, shuffling, adding and removing stages where necessary.

Or, if you're not using the software, use these Plot Outline PDF Templates.

Share your Plot Outline

We'd love to hear from you! Please share your plot outline in the comments below, or share your thoughts and feedback on this article.

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Click here to watch the Plot Outline Tutorial Video.

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