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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/8130
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

One problem I often run into when trying to make a general outline of the plot for a story is how specific I am in the descriptions of events. Generally, this happens when I have written a portion of the story already, meaning that I know what happens in and around that part of the story. When I decide to actually outline the plot for the entire story, I start out very general at first, but get more and more specific as I get closer to the part that I've written. This obviously leads to having numerous bullet points with very specific information on events that are very close together (short gap between points), while there are other bullet points that are very general and open for expansion (larger gap between points).

Is there a level of detail that I should try to keep the outline at? How detailed/simple should each bullet point be? My goal is to write a plot outline such that I can look at it and have a general idea of how long it is just by the number of items in the outline. Another goal could be considered to be ensuring that one plot point is not significantly more important or detailed than another. Is there any general method for doing such a thing?

Original score: 6