When you begin a novel, you are confronted with the question, Who drives your story? In a character-driven novel, the character is the plot, and by exploring the complexities of human nature, their growth, and their emotions, the character brings your story to life. Developing a rich, relatable character will transform your story into a compelling narrative that stays with the readers long after it is read.
Developing characters that can effectively advance their story is a challenge for many writers. Issues in character development like inconsistencies in characters, shallow backstories, or unclear arcs all undermine the overall impact of your story and may not connect with the readers.
The outline template at WordLayouts for writing a character-driven novel will help you easily bring your ideas to life. With detailed prompts to explore all aspects of your protagonist, you will be able to create a character that showcases the beauty of human depth and presents your story.
Character-Driven Novel Outline Template
The template follows the three-act structure, with each act written around one or more plot points. Since this outline is to help you develop a character-driven novel, we have provided genre-specific prompts in each section to dive deep into the main character and depict each aspect of their development.
We will now go over each section and discuss how you can use it to create your draft:
Setting
The setting of your story will describe the time, place, and environment where your story will take place. In fiction writing, the setting is not just the backdrop of where all the action takes place; rather, the setting plays an important part in influencing the actions and motivations of the characters. It also clarifies the theme of the story but also helps you establish the character’s worldview.
In a character-driven story, the setting plays an even more important role, as this forms a crucial part of the character’s backstory, influences their motivations and ambitions, and can explain their actions too. A great example is the work of Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, where the internal and external conflicts of the protagonist are reflected in contrasting worlds of chaos (Paris) and relative stability (London).
In our outline template, you will find sections to write: place, Place, Time Period, Historical Context, and Mood to describe the setting. These elements will help you identify the physical environment (place), societal norms, fashion, and lifestyles (time period). Using these prompts, you can explain how any social or international movements affected the character (historical context) and the story’s emotional tone (mood).
These elements guide you as a writer to engage the reader with your story by describing a plausible and realistic world of the protagonist.
Main character/protagonist
In a character-driven plot, the development of the protagonist’s character becomes very important as the story revolves around their internal growth and transformation. Their thoughts, motivations, relationships, and internal struggles are the focus of such a plot. For example, consider the novel The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, where the character of Esther Greenwood drives the plot. The story is about her mental health struggles and emotional journey and not about any external events.
You can create a rich, multi-layered, and three-dimensional character by following the prompts in the template outline.
The template has sections for Name, Background, Appearance, Personality Traits, Motivation, Goals, Strengths, Weaknesses, and Internal Conflict.
These prompts help you establish the identity, reflect the cultural context of the character (Name), and explain the behavior and actions of the character (Background). You can also describe the physical features (Appearance) so that your readers can visualize the protagonist and relate with them.
To add more depth to the character, you can describe their behavior, quirks, and style (Personality Traits). With the help of the outline, you can define why the character behaves in a certain way (Motivation) what the character wants to achieve (Goals), and their strengths, weaknesses, and internal conflicts.
Once you have defined all these aspects of their personality, you have a nuanced character with a rich reading experience for the readers.
Act I
The first act introduces the protagonist and their world to the readers. The motivations and inner struggles of the protagonist are also presented in this part of the novel.
The template helps you to create the first act by providing predefined stages for your chapters. Moreover, we have also provided a brief explanation of each stage to help you develop an emotionally compelling first act.
To understand how you can use the outline template for each stage that can be developed for your novel, see the example of the character of Jane Eyre:
- Incomplete: At the start of the novel, we see that Jane Eyre is an orphan living with her cruel aunt. She wants to be loved and yearns for a sense of belonging.
- Unsettled: Jane is sent away to a boarding school, which has a harsh environment. This uproots her from her familiar environment and she is faced with challenges.
- Resistant: Jane is reserved at her workplace and does not trust anyone easily. She does not accept her feelings for Mr. Rochester and ignores his advances. `
- Encouraged: Jane’s friend encourages her to forgive those who wronged her and move on in life.
By following these predefined stages in the template, you can describe a relatable journey of the protagonist in your novel.
Act II
The second act in the novel shows the transition of the protagonist from his normal world to a new phase of life. It deepens the character’s development and we are able to see the flaws and strengths of the character through their actions. The ups and downs in this part of the plot contribute to the character’s evolution and keep the story dynamic and engaging. The second act also needs to be developed properly because it lays the groundwork for the climax in the next stage of your novel.
With a weak second act, your narrative will not have enough emotional depth and the struggle of the protagonist will not seem believable to the readers.
In this outline template, you will find a strong framework to develop an engaging second act of your novel. The structure is divided over a sequence of stages: New Situation, Challenges, Temporary Triumph, Major Setback and Turning Point.
To give you an understanding of how you can use these stages to write your novel, see a breakdown of The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.
- New Situation: The character Stevens, the butler, embarks on a road trip after serving years as ahead butler to Lord Darlington. During the trip, he begins to reflect on his past and question the choices he had made during his service to Lord Darlington.
- Challenges: During his journey, we see how he realizes that his dedication to his work made him miss emotional connections and opportunities for personal happiness.
- Temporary Triumph: Stevens remembers that he did have an emotional connection with Miss Kenton, who worked with him. These thoughts give him some comfort and satisfaction.
- Major Setback: While reflecting on his work, Stevens realizes how he served his employer without questioning his moral beliefs. He is emotionally disturbed that he may have also contributed to those actions as well because of his unrelenting loyalty to his employer.
- Turning point: The turning point for Stevens is when he fully realizes that his rigid beliefs made him miss many opportunities to achieve personal happiness.
By following the stages in the outline template, you can write the second act of your novel and describe the transformative journey of your main character in a meaningful way.
Act III
The third act wraps up the story and provides a satisfying conclusion to the protagonist’s journey. It makes the final impression on the readers, where they see how the character has evolved and overcome his challenges.
The third act features three stages: climax, resolution, and denouement. In a character-driven novel, the climax is usually the confrontation of the protagonist with his internal and external challenges. For instance, in the example of The Remains of the Day, the climax is when Stevens realizes the extent of past mistakes. The resolution stage is when the character begins to understand the conflicts in his life and tries to address them. This introspection also helps them heal and accept their past mistakes.
Finally, the denouement is the stage where we see how the character’s outlook on life has changed and how they intend to move forward in life. Usually, in a character-based novel, this is more of a quiet reflective moment rather than something action-oriented.
The last part of the novel is the reader’s payoff, as they are emotionally invested in the emotional journey of the protagonist. In this stage of the novel, everything comes full circle, and writing a powerful final act will leave a strong emotional impact on your readers long after the book is finished.
In this template, you will find brief guidance for all three stages of the final part of your novel. You can write an emotionally satisfying ending for your story that shows how your character has evolved in their emotional journey and overcome their internal conflicts.
Writing a character-driven novel can be challenging, as characters can appear underdeveloped and uninteresting. But more than this, the biggest difficulty lies in realistically portraying the internal conflict of the protagonist. It might be difficult to show the emotional depth of their journey and create obstacles that feel plausible to readers.
This template helps you overcome these challenges and create a clear plot that focuses on the protagonist’s journey. By breaking the story into various stages and a dedicated section for defining your protagonist, you can move the story forward while also creating an authentic character. The template allows you to focus on plotting scenes that clearly show the character’s motivations, their weaknesses, and their goal to create an engaging character that your readers will resonate with.
This template has been made available in DOCX, DOTX, Google Docs, and ODT formats and is fully customizable. You can make changes to any section according to the requirements of your plot.
This template is designed to help you overcome writer’s block and organize your ideas at each stage of writing your novel. Whether you are writing a character-driven novel in any genre like literary fiction, mystery, historical fiction, or adventure, this outline template will provide structure to your novel and allow you to write a story that is well-paced, engaging, and emotionally satisfying.
