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Title

One-line summary

The prompt

Build a complete novel outline from this premise. Do not write any prose scenes — outline only.

Premise: [ONE-PARAGRAPH PREMISE]
Genre and target length: [GENRE AND APPROXIMATE WORD COUNT]
Point of view plan: [E.G. FIRST PERSON SINGLE POV, THIRD LIMITED ALTERNATING TWO POVS]
Ending type I want: [E.G. TRAGIC, EARNED HAPPY, AMBIGUOUS]
Anything fixed that must survive outlining: [NON-NEGOTIABLE CHARACTERS, SCENES, OR REVEALS — OR WRITE NONE]

Produce, in order:
1. Protagonist profile: external want, internal need, the lie they believe at the start, and the moment the lie breaks. Do the same for the antagonist, whose plan must make sense from their own perspective.
2. Story spine in five sentences: setup, destabilizing event, escalating middle, crisis, resolution.
3. Act map: for each act, its dramatic question and the event that closes it.
4. Chapter beat sheet: a numbered list covering the whole book. For each chapter give POV character, one-line goal, the obstacle, the outcome (prefer "yes, but" or "no, and" over clean wins), and what changed — in plot, in relationships, or in what the reader knows. If nothing changes, cut or merge the chapter and say so.
5. Continuity register: every promise the outline makes to the reader (planted objects, secrets, foreshadowing) with the chapter where each is planted and the chapter where it pays off. Any promise without a payoff chapter is an error — fix it before presenting the outline.

Finish with the three weakest points in your own outline and one alternative for each.

Write it so someone can paste it straight into Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini and fill the [BRACKETS].