About this tool
An outline is a pacing instrument, not a prison. Give a genre, a logline, and a target length, and this tool returns a chapter-aware skeleton you can rearrange — short summaries, not drafted chapters.
How to use it
- Write a logline with a protagonist, a change, and a stake.
- Pick short story, novella, or novel so chapter count stays honest.
- Generate, then merge chapters that do the same job.
- Leave “what to decide next” as your actual next writing session.
Examples
Input
Genre: Fantasy · Novel · Logline: a mute archivist must finish one inherited life-story to save her own.
What you get
Title options, act overview, 18–22 chapter beats of 1–3 sentences, theme notes.
Input
Genre: Science Fiction · Novella · A maintenance crew trapped in a rotating habitat during a vote.
What you get
10-ish sections, each with a political or physical clock, no novel-length bloat.
Input
Genre: Romance · Novel · Two rival ferry captains share one winter route.
What you get
Meet-cute through crisis, with external jobs that force proximity every chapter cluster.
Outlines that survive drafting
One job per chapter
If a summary contains two revelations, split it. If two summaries contain none, merge them.
Length is a constraint
A short story outline with twenty chapters is a novel in denial. Trust the length field.
Decide later, on purpose
The “what to decide next” list is the point. An outline that pretends every theme is settled will fight you in draft two.
Avoid
- Using the outline generator before you have a logline — start with the plot tool.
- Copying chapter titles into the manuscript unchanged. They are labels.