Outline Chapter

Skill: outline-chapter

What it does. Builds the structure of a chapter before any prose exists: beats, scenes, obligations, and constraints. The outline is the contract that draft-scene executes against.

Triggers

• "outline chapter X.Y"
• "/outline-chapter X.Y"
• "let's structure the next chapter"
• Equivalent phrasing in the project's output language

Input. Chapter position; whatever the author already knows about it (can be one sentence or nothing).

Output. {chapter}_outline.md next to where the chapter will live, following .project/templates/chapter-outline.md. Under chapter layout that directory may not exist yet — create it, named the chapter id (see .project/templates/layout.md).

Offer the scene contracts as ## n - name - budget headers for the chapter file, so the budget sits next to the cursor while drafting; scripts/scene-budget reads them back. Offer once and drop it. Writing a chapter straight through is a legitimate choice — see manuscript/README.md → Scene headers while drafting.

Write the outline in the project's output language.

Core principle

An outline is a set of obligations, not a summary written in advance.

The difference: a summary describes what happens; an obligation list states what the chapter must accomplish, plant, and protect. Prose drafted from obligations has direction. Prose drafted from a summary has only sequence.

Every chapter carries three kinds of obligation:

1. Debt — what previous chapters promised that this one must pay (or explicitly defer)
2. Planting — what future chapters need seeded here, invisibly
3. Protection — what must NOT happen: mysteries that stay closed, information characters cannot yet have, reveals that belong to later chapters

The third is the one outlines usually forget, and the one that prevents the worst generation failures.

Protocol

Step 1 — Load context

1. .project/config/project.yaml — output language, structure
2. The previous chapter (and the next, if it exists) — continuity in both directions
3. .project/knowledge/timeline.md — where we are in story time
4. .project/knowledge/worldbuilding.md — active rules and the deliberately unexplained list
5. .project/knowledge/characters/ — sheets of everyone likely on stage (arc positions especially)
6. .project/config/style-guide.md — structural rules (POV, tense, chapter length norms)

Step 2 — Collect the author's intent

Ask what they know, however vague: "the chapter where the merchant admits it" is enough to start. If the author has nothing, propose 2–3 candidate directions based on open debt, and let them choose.

The author's intent wins over structural neatness, always.

Step 3 — Compute the obligations

Debt. Sweep recent chapters for open promises: questions raised, characters in motion, tensions unresolved. List which ones this chapter pays, and which it deliberately lets ride.

Planting. Ask what later chapters (if known) will need to have been established. A reveal only lands if planted at least once before.

Protection. From worldbuilding.md's deliberately-unexplained list and the characters' knowledge states: what must this chapter not reveal, resolve, or let a character know too early? Write these as explicit constraints — they are draft-scene's guardrails.

Step 4 — Break into scenes

For each scene, five fields:

• Purpose — the one obligation this scene serves. A scene serving no obligation gets cut or merged.
• Conflict — what resists. A scene where nothing resists is a transition; make it short or absorb it.
• Turn — what is different when the scene ends. If nothing changed, the scene has no exit.
• On stage — who is present; which character sheets draft-scene must load.
• Length signal — rough weight (brief / standard / extended) so pacing is decided here, not improvised during drafting.

Step 5 — Check the shape

• Does the chapter's ending create the pull toward the next one?
• Does pacing vary, or is every scene the same weight?
• Cross-check analyze-chapter history: if the book's endings over-use one closing pattern (single-line, aphorism), flag what this chapter's ending should not be.

Step 6 — Present and iterate

Present the outline as a proposal. The author cuts, reorders, overrides. Only the validated version becomes the contract.

What to avoid

Over-specification. The outline fixes purpose and constraints — not sentences. If it starts containing prose, it is stealing decisions that belong to drafting (where the author's voice, via persona, does the work).

Beat inflation. Not every chapter needs five scenes. A single-scene chapter with one strong turn is a legitimate shape.

Ignoring the protection list. The most expensive failure: an outline that lets a scene casually resolve a mystery the book needs closed. Protection constraints are non-negotiable inputs to draft-scene.

Outlining past the author. If the author says "I don't know yet what happens after the door opens" — stop there. An honest partial outline beats a complete invented one.

Relationship to other skills