How to Outline Your Novel to Avoid First Draft Mistakes
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Locking in just five core elements of your story before you go into draft will put you ahead of 99% of writers, and I'm going to reveal exactly what they are — and how to harness them to write a killer first draft.
If you're a pantser, don't worry — I'm not saying you have to write a 30-page, scene-by-scene outline or a rigid beat sheet if that doesn't suit your process. I'm not even saying you have to have every plot point or every character figured out.
When I work with New York Times best-selling authors to plot their books, we always come back to these five core elements to ensure the draft holds up from beginning to end — ultimately making the writing process so much smoother and more enjoyable. Plus, it saves them revision work down the line.
1. The Inciting Incident
This is something you've likely already thought about, but just haven't put in the right place yet: it's the inciting incident.
The inciting incident is what kickstarts your story. It's where everything changes for your protagonist and their journey is set into motion. It's when Romeo and Juliet meet at the party and fall in love at first sight. It's when Katniss volunteers as tribute. It's when Jack wins the ticket to board the Titanic.
The inciting incident is typically what you think about when you're crafting your story's premise, because it forms the foundation of your plot. Without the inciting incident, there is no journey — and therefore no story to tell. It's critical to nail your inciting incident because it's what hooks your reader into your story and makes them invested in seeing what happens to the protagonist.
If your inciting incident is weak, low stakes, or unbelievable, you risk losing your reader before the story even begins.
To determine if you have a compelling inciting incident, ask yourself: how does it fundamentally alter my protagonist's emotional state? If the answer is "it doesn't," then it's not really serving as the inciting incident.
With Romeo and Juliet, they're suddenly determined to be together no matter what. Katniss suddenly fears for her life now that she's in the Hunger Games. And Jack is suddenly excited by the potential to start a new life in America aboard the ship of dreams.
We should feel a sudden emotional shift when the inciting incident hits — and the rest of the story will explore the ripple effects of that incident. It needs to be charged with tension and feel consequential. That’s how you create narrative propulsion.
Most writers know what their inciting incident is when they begin to draft — but here’s where they often go wrong: it happens far too deep in the story.
They spend the first few chapters showing the protagonist’s regular routine, their mundane activities and interactions, and the reader starts to wonder, "What am I reading for?"
Don’t get me wrong — we should have some sense of the protagonist’s status quo before everything changes for them. But don’t bury your inciting incident halfway through the story.
There’s no hard and fast rule for when the inciting incident needs to occur in your manuscript. Some novels begin with the inciting incident on the very first page. But a general rule of thumb is that it should come between 10 to 15% of the way through the manuscript.
Keeping this top of mind when you begin to write your story will help you avoid much of the extraneous material writers tend to put in the initial chapters — and get to the true heart of the story, the juicy stuff, so much faster.
2. The Protagonist’s Arc
The next element to figure out to get ahead with your first draft is essential if you want your story to have an emotional impact on the reader — it's your protagonist’s arc.
If you’ve thought through your inciting incident properly, you should have a general sense of where your protagonist is emotionally at the start of the story. Now let’s explore that a little deeper.
A storytelling exercise I love to do with my clients is identifying the protagonist’s internal misbelief. This is something that your protagonist thinks is true — about themself or about the world — that will ultimately be proven wrong by the end of the story.
For example, in The Great Gatsby, Gatsby’s fundamental internal misbelief is that he can recreate the past and win back Daisy. By the end of the novel, his transformation — and his demise — ultimately hinges on his discovery that this belief is totally false. He cannot recreate the past, and he cannot win back Daisy.
Maybe your protagonist believes they’re unlovable, or that they must sacrifice everything for success. The events of the story should lead them to disprove their internal misbelief, and thereby fuel their transformative arc.
After all, we don’t read to see a character stay the way they are — we read to see them change and evolve in exciting and unexpected ways.
So before you begin drafting, you should understand how your protagonist will see things differently by the end. You don’t necessarily need to know everything that will happen to get them to that point, but you should understand what their transformation will entail.
3. Point of View
If you don't think carefully about this element before drafting, you might end up having to make major revisions down the line — so it's something I'm constantly discussing with my clients.
Point of view is not just a minor technical decision. It shapes the reader's entire experience of the story and informs each and every scene you write. But most writers don’t think about POV enough before they begin drafting, which leads to a scattered or unfocused narrative that they then have to revise from the ground up.
So before you even begin drafting, think long and hard about whose perspective this story should be told from.
The Great Gatsby is an interesting example, because the protagonist is Jay Gatsby, but the story is narrated from Nick Carraway’s point of view. This is an intentional choice that allows us to see Gatsby from a different angle — and also keep his inner world mysterious.
In most fiction, the primary point of view character is also the protagonist. But you might have a multi-storyline novel where we follow different POV characters. In that case, make sure that each and every point of view is justified and belongs in the story.
If you have a story with eleven point of view characters, ask yourself: do they all contribute something meaningful and essential to the story? Because with each new point of view you introduce, you're dividing the reader's attention and creating narrative distance. More deeply exploring fewer POVs could make the story more emotionally impactful.
You'll also want to choose between third person and first person. With this, I recommend trusting your instinct. Does it feel natural to you to write in the character’s voice, or do you prefer a more neutral third person?
If you want to opt for an omniscient narrator, then proceed with caution — and make sure you understand the difference between omniscient point of view and head-hopping.
The right POV will unlock your narrative voice and enable the reader to connect emotionally with your protagonist. But the wrong POV will put a big wall between your reader and the story. So before you write Chapter 1, think very strategically about your point of view — because your entire story depends on it.
4. The Climax
Nailing this element will help you avoid the “messy middle” problem that so many authors struggle with. The inciting incident kicks off your story, but the climax is where it all pays off. This is the most pivotal, dramatic scene in your entire story — it’s where we finally see the protagonist face the conflict they’ve been battling throughout all the other chapters head-on.
An effective climax doesn’t just feel consequential, but inevitable — because it’s what all the other scenes have been building to. But if you don’t know what the climax is before you begin drafting, it’ll be like driving without a destination. You’ll go somewhere, sure, but probably not where you meant to go.
I was working with a best-selling author recently who had her inciting incident, her protagonist’s arc, and her POV all mapped out. But she was concerned about having a “messy middle” problem when she went to draft — because she didn’t know what the plot was building to.
We brainstormed an event where all of the characters would have to come together, and the big secret that one of the characters was hiding would be revealed. Once we figured out the climax, she was ready to hit the ground running with drafting — because she knew exactly what the story was building to.
Knowing your climax early tells you what you’re writing toward and will help you avoid mistakes when plotting. Each scene will get your protagonist closer and closer to that pivotal moment — making it so much more emotionally impactful when we finally get there.
5. The Feeling You Want Your Story to Evoke
Finally, the last element to nail down when you begin drafting is what separates an okay story from an unforgettable one — it’s the feeling you want your story to evoke in the reader.
Most writers at the early stage get hung up thinking about the genre or polishing their writing style, but neglect the more important question: What do I want my reader to feel after they finish the story? Once you know that, all the other questions will sort themselves out.
Most writers don’t think about the reader’s experience of the story nearly enough — but it should inform how you approach the entire novel.
Think about your favorite books. You don’t just remember what happened in them — but how they made you feel.
Another one of my recent clients was working on a thriller, and he knew exactly what feeling he wanted to evoke before he began his draft: shock and awe at the final twist about the protagonist. He wanted readers to feel unsettled and disturbed at the conclusion.
Whether you're writing a dark story like that one or a swoon-worthy romance where you want readers to feel inspired and uplifted, you should have some emotion in mind as you draft. That emotion will inform your choices in tone, word choice, style, and atmosphere.
Ultimately, knowing your final sentiment is how you’ll make sure your story is cohesive.
I edited a different novel recently that started out like a light-hearted romcom, then partway through abruptly switched to action-packed suspense. This left me confused and disoriented — what was I supposed to feel? When I discussed this with my client, they agreed that something was off and realized they had been torn between writing a heartfelt love story and a pulse-pounding drama. But if they had identified the core emotion they wanted the reader to feel from the beginning, they would have had a much more effective first draft.
Readers may not remember every single plot point or character — but they will remember how your story made them feel. So identify that core emotion before you get too deep in the draft.
Your first draft isn’t going to be perfect.
As a book editor, I firmly believe in messy first drafts. No writer — not even your favorite — writes a perfect first draft. It’s impossible, and the drafting process should be exploratory and creative.
But if you get these key foundational elements right from the start, you’re going to be far ahead of most — allowing you to elevate your story to the next level on revisions, rather than having to go back to the basics.
Thanks so much for reading — and happy writing!
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