Outlining Ladder
Structure planning in rungs. Climb as far as the story needs — each rung has an exit criterion, so discovery writers can stop early and full planners can go all the way. For the discovery side of this workflow, see the discovery-drafting skill.
Rung 1: Premise
One sentence: the controlling idea, value + cause (see the premise: field in story.md).
Exit criterion: You can state the premise and counter-premise without looking at your notes, and the logline (see story-init's references/title-logline.md) names a protagonist, a want, an obstacle, and stakes. Stop here if the rest of the story is clear in your head.
Rung 2: Beat Sheet
The major story beats in order — one line each, mapped to the chosen structure model (see references/structure-models.md).
Exit criterion: Every beat names who changes or what changes; no beat is "something happens here." The beats connect causally — each one causes the next. Stop here if you outline to write freely between fixed points.
Rung 3: Step Outline / Treatment
One short paragraph per scene or chapter: where, who, what happens, what changes. Prose stays skeletal — no dialogue, no description.
Exit criterion: The outline reads like a complete story told badly. Pacing is visible (no dead zones, escalations land where they should), and every scene has a named purpose. Stop here for most novels.
Rung 4: Full Outline
Scene-by-scene with POV, location, participants, state changes, and which arc plot points advance. This is the scenes/ frontmatter filled in before the prose.
Exit criterion: A stranger could draft the chapter from the outline without inventing plot. This rung exists for complex multi-POV or series work, not as a default.
Using the Ladder
- Climb one rung at a time; each rung audits the one below. A beat sheet that cannot connect causally means the premise is wrong, not that you need a longer outline.
- If a rung feels like filling in boxes, the story is not ready for it — stay on the rung below and write.
- Revision runs the ladder in reverse: the
revision-continuityreverse-outline pass checks what the draft actually does against each rung.