You have your characters.
You’ve built your world.
You’ve figured out your major story beats.
And now?
IT’S TIME TO START OUTLINING YOUR NOVEL! 🎉
Welcome back to Day 22 of Preptober 2026! 🎃💕
Yesterday, we talked about choosing the right point of view for our stories. Today, we’re taking those BIG moments we’ve been brainstorming and turning them into something a little more manageable.
Individual chapters!
And don’t worry, you guys.
We’re NOT creating an elaborate, 100-page outline. 😂
We’re keeping things simple so we can head into Novel November with a clear direction and plenty of room for creativity!
1. Start With Your Major Story Beats
Remember those story beats we mapped out earlier this week?
Your opening, inciting incident, Act I turning point, midpoint, darkest moment, climax, and resolution?
Those are the landmarks of your story!
Now, we’re figuring out how to connect them.
I personally like to organize my novels into three acts, with approximately 12 chapters per act.
That gives me a starting framework of roughly 36 chapters.
But here’s the thing:
You do NOT need 36 chapters to write a novel!
Maybe your story needs 20 chapters.
Maybe it needs 50.
Maybe you don’t know yet!
That’s perfectly fine.
The goal is to create a structure that works for YOUR story.
2. Break Your Story Into Smaller Moments
Once you’ve identified your major beats, start brainstorming what needs to happen between them.
For example, imagine you’re writing a mystery novel.
Your inciting incident might be discovering a missing family heirloom.
But before your protagonist reaches the midpoint, they might need to:
- Interview someone who witnessed something suspicious.
- Discover a clue that contradicts the original explanation.
- Follow a lead that turns out to be misleading.
- Uncover a secret about someone they trust.
Suddenly, you have several possible chapters!
And notice something?
Each event moves the story forward.
That’s what we’re looking for.
You don’t need to know every detail yet.
Just start identifying the moments that connect your major story beats.
3. My Simple Chapter Outlining Method
Here’s how I like to outline my chapters.
For each chapter, I write down:
Chapter Number: Where does this chapter belong?
Chapter Goal: What needs to happen or change?
Setting: Where does the chapter take place?
Characters: Who appears in the chapter?
Three Bullet Points: What are the three most important things that happen?
That’s it!
For example:
Chapter 4 — The Missing Letter
- Goal: The protagonist discovers that someone has been hiding information.
- Setting: Family library.
- Characters: Protagonist, older sibling.
- Three Key Events:
- The protagonist searches the library for an old photograph.
- They discover a letter hidden inside a book.
- Their sibling catches them reading it and demands they hand it over.
See how simple that is?
We have enough information to understand the chapter’s purpose without planning every conversation or description.
And when it’s time to draft?
We still have plenty of room to discover what happens along the way!
4. Remember: Your Outline Can Change!
Here’s something I want you to remember.
Your outline works for YOU. You don’t work for your outline.
Maybe you’ll discover a better plot twist while drafting.
Maybe two chapters will work better as one.
Maybe a supporting character will suddenly become far more important than you originally planned.
That’s okay!
Your outline isn’t a contract.
It’s a guide.
And you can change it whenever your story needs something different.
✍️ Today’s Preptober E-Guide Exercise
Grab your FREE Preptober E-Guide and turn to pages 21–22: Plotting & Outlining!
Today, I want you to start turning your major story beats into chapters.
Here’s your assignment:
- Divide your story into three acts.
- Place your major story beats within those acts.
- Brainstorm the events that connect those beats.
- Start creating chapter cards using the templates in your guide.
- For each chapter, identify its goal, setting, characters, and three key events.
And here’s a little tip!
You don’t need to outline your entire novel today.
Start with the chapters you already know.
If you’re using the printable chapter templates, you can cut them out, arrange them in your notebook, and move them around as your story develops.
We’ll spend the next few days working through each act together!
🎥 Follow Along With Preptober 2026!
I’m sharing 31 FREE daily YouTube videos throughout October to help writers prepare for Novel November!
And it’s never too late to join us!
Coming Tomorrow: Day 23 — Outline Act I! 🎉
Tomorrow, we’ll take everything we’ve learned about our story’s beginning and turn it into a chapter-by-chapter outline!
We’ll focus on introducing our protagonists, establishing the central conflict, and building toward that all-important Act I turning point.
Now I want to hear from YOU!
Are you a detailed outliner, or do you prefer a few bullet points to guide your writing?
Let me know in the comments! 💕
We’ve got a novel to plan. 🎃✍️
