How Can a Reverse Outline Help You Revise Your Novel?

In 6 Outlining Methods to Suit Your Writing Process, I explained what an outline is and provided some examples of types of outlines that are popular among writers. In short: Outlines are done before drafting in order to create a roadmap for you while you write.

Reverse outlines, however, are a different beast.

We’ll cover—

• What is a reverse outline?
• How to create a reverse outline
• Using a reverse outline to revise your novel

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What is a reverse outline?

Like typical outlines, a reverse outline is a simplified version of your manuscript, a roadmap of your story from start to end. A reverse outline is similar to a typical outline, with one key difference: While a typical outline is done before writing, to plan out the structure and topics of your manuscript, a reverse outline is the opposite. Instead of outlining before you write, a reverse outline is done after you write.

This is a super cool concept, because while an outline offers an image of your intent for your novel, a reverse outline will show you your novel as it exists, which can be a very different picture once you’ve finished the drafting process.

How to create a reverse outline

A reverse outline is created after you’ve drafted. Notably, like regular outlines, a reverse outline can be as simple or as detailed as you’d like to make it. I always like to recommend reading through your draft once without making any notes (to get an overall feel for how your elements are working together as-is), but once you’re ready to make a reverse outline, the process is fairly simple.

Read through your novel, and on a separate document make notes on your novel’s structure. These notes can include:

• Chapter number/title
• Scenes/events (as they literally happen)
• The meaning of those scenes/events (their importance: character development, clues, red herrings, a particular story beat, etc.)
• Characters present
• Settings
• Timeline (i.e. are the scenes happening in the morning/evening, and how many days have passed since the beginning of the novel)

I definitely recommend laying out these items in whatever chart/mapping style suits your process best. As an example, here’s how I like to lay out my reverse outlines:

I like looking at the details of my chapters in “stacks” like this, where I can list every scene one on top of each other. If you like more of a horizontal view, you might try this:

You’ll notice that in addition to laying out the outline differently here, I also moved around the order; this is not set in stone, you can play with the order of elements to fit your priorities and style.

Note: Some writers and editors recommend keeping track of scenes only, while others (like myself) recommend also keeping track of which chapters these scenes happen in. It might seem an extra step, but when considering the overall structure and pacing of your novel, you need to consider natural break points for your readers, as well as be able to keep track of whether a particular chapter has too many scenes, or perhaps too few.

Other Tips:

• There are no rules for how to lay out your reverse outline—do what works best for you
• Color coding these elements can be a way to highlight the most important aspects (such as Importance to Plot)
• Play around for how you want to order your elements
• Add/remove elements as needed—every novel is different, so you might want to map different elements each time

Using a reverse outline to revise your novel

Once you’ve made a reverse outline: Congratulations, you’ve got a snapshot of what your novel looks like now!

When you start revising, you’re looking at the big picture first (fine tuning your sentences and wording comes later!). A reverse outline lets you read through your novel in a shortened time span again and again, and helps you find plot holes, inconsistencies in character development and worldbuilding, and pacing issues (like I said, all of the big picture). You can compare your reverse outline to your initial outline to see if/where you’ve fallen off track. You can set each scene on an index card and move things around.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when using a reverse outline for revision:

• Are there too many scenes in each chapter, or too few?
• Does your timeline make sense?
• Does each scene have a purpose? (This is where “importance to plot” comes in; if you can’t find it, you likely don’t need the scene.)
• Do any scenes repeat the same purpose?
• Are your chosen settings the right place to hold each scene?
• Are there any characters present who don’t have a purpose in the scene?

Once you’ve gone through your reverse outline and settled things nicely, you’ll find it’s an easier job returning to your full draft to start revising. Some writers will want to go directly back to the page, and others like to re-fit their new outline into an established structure with definitive beats, such as a three-act outline (which I discuss in this blog post).

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Reverse outlines are the number one method I recommend for revising novels at the big picture. I even use them when working on developmental edits for clients! They’re easily adapted for any kind of novel and any style of writer, providing a snapshot of the novel as it comes out of drafting (because as we all know, stories change as we write them!).

Sometimes reverse outlines can show us a lot of weaknesses in our novels as well, and it’s possible things change so much from your initial intent that you don’t know how to move forward. If that’s the case, let’s talk about booking an outline consultation to get you a second set of experienced eyes, so you can revise with confidence.

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