Book outline templates

Every book starts somewhere. Where will you begin?

George R. R. Martin split all writers into two camps: architects, who blueprint every room before laying a brick, and gardeners, who plant a seed and see what grows. But he forgot to mention the secret: even gardeners plant in rows. However you write, a book outline is the version of your novel you get to build while every idea is still changeable.

Our ultimate collection of book outline templates holds the architecture for six of the most popular genres. Each is a starter kit that turns everything your readers expect — the beats, the promises, the payoffs — into a workspace you can actually draft from. So which book will you outline first?

Our book outline templates, up close

Every starter kit is a workshop for the book you’re planning. Each comes with: 

• The Outline board — what happens. Preloaded with a story structure matched to your genre's rhythm: the Hero's Journey for fantasy, a rolling Fichtean Curve for horror, our original 13-beat arc for romance.
• The Characters board — who it happens to. Genre-tailored profile cards, from dual Love Interests to the classic quest cast of Protagonist, Antagonist, Mentor, and Confidant.
• The Places board — where it happens. And where your genre demands more, a full Worldbuilding board comes attached — kingdoms and magic for fantasy, planets and technology for sci-fi.
• The Essentials board — what you're promising. Theme, Conflict, and Stakes & Consequences in every kit, plus the genre's own device where one is called for: a Trope card for romance and romantasy, a Foreshadowing card for horror.

The Romance Starter Kit

The spine: The traditional romance arc — thirteen beats across four acts, from Ordinary, Boring Life to Happily Ever After.

Also in the box: Two mirrored Love Interest profiles designed to be built side by side, plus Best Friend, Rival, and Trope cards, among others.

A prompt from inside: What is their default conflict style? Write an everyday fight scene with @Love Interest.

The Romantasy Starter Kit

The spine: The 3-Act Structure — nine beats carrying a fantasy plot and a romance arc that escalate together.

Also in the box: Love Interests, a Villain, a Confidant — and court-intrigue worldbuilding such as Court and Species. Magic, guilds, lore, and wars included.

A prompt from inside: How will you make the trope your own? Ground it so it couldn't be lifted into any other book.

The Fantasy Starter Kit

The spine: The Hero's Journey — all twelve stages of the monomyth, from the Ordinary World to the Return with the Elixir.

Also in the box: The classic quest cast — Protagonist, Antagonist, Mentor, Confidant — and the deepest world-box in the collection: Kingdoms & Realms from continent to city, the Wilds, Magic & Combat, guilds and economies, and a Lore folder for the historical events and wars your fantasy novel outline stands on.

A prompt from inside: Who or what stands on the other side of the Refusal? What pressure is pushing against it?

The Sci-Fi Starter Kit

The spine: The 3-Act Structure — nine beats from Exposition to Denouement, the industry-standard map fitted with checkpoints at every beat.

Also in the box: A complete world-box for your Places board, from Planet to City. Technology instead of Magic & Combat included, along with Time, Trade & Commerce, and much more. 

A prompt from inside: What can this technology not do? Write the warning label the makers had to add after someone tried.

The Horror Starter Kit

The spine: The Fichtean Curve, which includes a Crisis card built to be duplicated as many times as you need.

Also in the box: The Foreshadowing card — Plant, Lay, Payoff — with a Beginning/Middle/End trail you check off as the clues accumulate. (Psst, mystery and thriller writers: this kit moonlights for you, too.)

A prompt from inside: What red herrings do you plant in the middle? Name the wrong conclusion you want the reader to reach.

The Memoir Starter Kit

The spine: The memoirist's Story Circle — eight steps from YOU to CHANGE, with Tara Westover's Educated walked around the full circle beside you.

Also in the box: A Narrator profile, functioning as a five-part self-portrait (You, Remember, Reckon, Tell, Transform) ending on memoir's hardest question: who walked in, and who walked out? 

A prompt from inside: Who were you, back then? Describe yourself as a stranger would have seen you — then as you saw yourself.

Outline your book, step by step

However you plan, a few principles will keep a starter kit working for you.

• Outline to the depth you'll actually use. A book outline can be a page of bullet points or a scene-by-scene map. Architects will want the full blueprint; gardeners might only need the next three beats and a destination. Every card in these kits works at both depths — sketch on the canvas, or go deep in the workshop — and you don't owe the template every answer.

• Let your genre carry some of the weight. Genre conventions aren't constraints; they're pre-made load-bearing walls. Romance readers expect the Grand Gesture, horror readers expect the dread to escalate, romantasy readers expect both the kingdom and the kiss. Your outline is where you decide how to deliver on those promises, or how to subvert them on purpose.

• Outline the promises, not just the plot. The most useful book outlines track more than events: note what the reader knows at each point, what they're hoping for, and what you owe them by the end. It's why these kits build theme, stakes, tropes, and foreshadowing into the outline itself rather than leaving them for revision to discover.

• Start drafting before the outline is "done." An outline is a map, and maps get redrawn once you've walked the territory. Build enough structure to feel confident, start writing, and come back to your boards as the book teaches you what it wants to be. (Already 30,000 words into a discovery draft? Outlining now, in reverse, is one of the fastest ways to find out what you've actually written.)

So which starter kit should you pick? The honest answer: the one that matches the book you can't stop thinking about.

More than a template: a complete book outline workspace

We believe that a book outline isn’t a list of events: it’s a web of people, places, and promises that constantly interact. Every book outline template, therefore, opens as a set of connected boards in Reedsy Studio. 

Here’s what else you can expect inside. 

• Structure, cast, world, and promise — together. Each kit bundles a proven spine with genre-tailored characters, places, and an Essentials board that captures the contract you're making with readers. Outline, character work, and worldbuilding stop being three separate apps.

• Tailored to each genre. In the Romantasy kit, a Court card replaces the Government under Power, and Species moves up into Civilization. In Sci-Fi, Technology stands in for magic and a Time card guards your centuries. In Romance, the therapist's notes track two inner lives at once. 

• Written for the market you're publishing into. The Trope card doesn't stop at craft — its final section asks for your comps, your trope stack, and the line in your blurb that makes the promise land. 

• Connected to your entire planning process. Kits link into your character profiles and worldbuilding templates, and every board @-mentions into every beat.

• In the same place you'll write it. Your kits live in Reedsy Studio, beside the manuscript editor and typesetting tools — beat sheet to draft to print-ready book, no exporting between apps.

Beyond the starter kits, Studio provides:

• A full universe of planning templates — story structures, characters, worldbuilding, and more

• Seamless integration between your boards and your manuscript

• A full-featured manuscript editor for drafting and revision

• Automatic saving and cross-device syncing

• Export options in multiple formats, including print-ready PDF and EPUB

And of course, these book outline templates are lovingly built for authors, by authors.

So what are you waiting for? Start outlining today.

Frequently asked questions

What is a book outline template? 

A book outline template is a pre-built plan that breaks a novel into its working parts — plot beats, characters, settings, and stakes — so you can develop your book piece by piece instead of facing a blank page. In Reedsy Studio, each one is a genre starter kit: a connected set of boards pairing a proven story structure with a cast, a world, and the essentials your genre's readers expect.

What's inside a genre starter kit? 

Four kinds of boards: an Outline board preloaded with a structure matched to your genre, a Characters board with tailored profile cards, a Places board (plus a full Worldbuilding board for fantasy, romantasy, and sci-fi), and an Essentials board covering theme, conflict, and stakes — with genre devices like the Trope and Foreshadowing cards where the genre calls for them.

What's the difference between a book outline and a story structure? 

A story structure is the pattern — the named beats most satisfying stories share. A book outline is the whole plan: your events and your cast, your world, and the promises you're making readers. A starter kit bundles a structure inside a complete outline. If you'd rather have the structure alone, browse our story structure templates.

I'm writing romantasy — should I use the Romantasy kit or the Romance kit? 

Start with the Romantasy kit if your fantasy plot pulls equal weight: its 3-Act spine carries the external story while the Love Interests and Trope card carry the romance. If the relationship dominates and you want it plotted beat by beat, the Romance kit's 13-beat arc is built for exactly that — and you can download both kits and use them side by side. 

My genre isn't here — what should I use? 

Mystery and thriller writers: the Horror kit's Fichtean spine and Foreshadowing card were made for your problems, too. For everything else, pick a spine from our story structures and pair it with our character and worldbuilding templates. More kits are on the way!

Is the Memoir kit based on Dan Harmon's Story Circle? 

Yes! The eight steps are adapted from the Story Circle — Harmon's distillation of the Hero's Journey — rebuilt for memoir: written in the second person, walked through by Educated, and fitted with the Footnote, a device for interrogating your own memory at every step. For the Circle in its original form, read our Story Circle guide. 

Are the starter kits free? 

Creating a Reedsy Studio account is free, and writing and formatting your book in Studio always will be. The starter kits are part of Studio's Outlining add-on — and every new account can try all add-ons free for 30 days, long enough to outline your entire book before deciding. 

Can I customize a kit? 

Freely. Add cards, delete cards, rename beats, drop the whole Worldbuilding board if your story lives in one kitchen. The kits are starting points built to be bent — not checklists to complete. 

Do these templates work for nonfiction? 

The Memoir kit is our true-story kit, and it's built precisely for narrative nonfiction about your own life. For prescriptive nonfiction — how-to, self-help, business — a dedicated kit isn't here yet, but Studio's boards and notes work beautifully freeform in the meantime.