Story Outline Skeleton Activity
- Grades
- Grades 4–8, Elementary, Middle School
- Pages
- 1
- File type
- Preparation
- Print ready
- Subject
- ELA, Writing, Creative Writing
- Topic
- Story Outline, Narrative Writing
- Resource types
- Outlines
- Preparation
- Print ready
- Standards
- W.5.3
Product description
From the author
Use this one-page story outline to plan an original narrative or map an existing story. The skeleton prompts obvious and hidden character needs, a starting incident, three complications, help and a resolution.
Model a familiar story before students complete their own plan. The printable PDF is a planning template and does not include a sample story or answer key.
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In the classroom
Teaching tips & learning objectives
Learning objectives
Plan a story's structure by distinguishing a main character's obvious external need from a hidden internal need
Sequence a narrative's inciting incident, complications, turning point, and resolution before drafting
Teaching tips
Model the template first using a familiar story (a fairy tale or a class read-aloud) before asking students to apply it to their own original story idea.
Use as a pre-writing planning step ahead of a longer narrative writing assignment, since the template contains no space for full drafting.
Explain that the label Enticing Incident is being used for the inciting incident that starts the plot. The Help section can identify assistance; a turning point is an optional interpretation, not a separate printed requirement.
Skills covered
Narrative structure planning — students distinguish a character's obvious and hidden needs and sequence an inciting incident, three complications, a turning point, and a resolution.
Good to know
Questions teachers ask about this resource
Does this template include a sample story to outline, or do students supply their own?
Students supply the story themselves — either an existing one they choose or an original idea — and use the six-part skeleton (obvious and hidden character needs, an inciting incident, three complications, help, and a resolution) to map it out on the page.
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Curriculum
Standards, concepts & topics
Standards
Standards
- W.5.3
Core concepts
Core concepts
Story structure
Character needs
Narrative arc
Topics
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