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Epic fantasy outline template

An epic fantasy outline follows several viewpoint characters across a large world. They start apart, are drawn together, are scattered again so each thread learns something the others need, and converge for a last battle that settles the war and their own stakes at once.

Three travelers approach a sea temple across an exposed harbor where the tide has stopped.

When to use it

  • You have several viewpoint characters and need to know when their threads meet.
  • Your world is large, and the plot needs a shape that can travel across it.
  • Your ending is a battle, and you want every thread to arrive in time for it.

The 4 acts

  • Act One: The World Before. Many people in many places, and the sign that their world is ending.
  • Act Two: The Scattering. The company formed and broken, each thread sent its own way.
  • Act Three: The Reckoning. The true size of the enemy, the price of power, and the worst loss.
  • Act Four: The Last Battle. The threads converge, and the war and the personal stakes are settled together.

The 12 beats at 150,000 words

The marks assume 150,000 words, because epic fantasy often runs 120,000 to 200,000 words. Each beat keeps its percentage at any length, so scale the marks to your own. The story structure calculator works them out for any length.

  1. The Old Wound 1% · word 1,500 A short glimpse of the history about to come due. Keep it brief, and pay it off later.
  2. Many Homes 5% · word 7,500 Each point-of-view character in their own corner of the world, wanting something small.
  3. The Sign 12% · word 18,000 The omen, invasion, or death that says the old order is ending.
  4. The Company Forms 20% · word 30,000 The characters are drawn together, often unwillingly, around one purpose.
  5. The Company Breaks 30% · word 45,000 Betrayal, battle, or choice splits them. From here their threads run apart.
  6. Separate Trials 42% · word 63,000 Each thread learns something the others will need, in a place the others never see.
  7. The Enemy Revealed 50% · word 75,000 The threat is bigger than the quest planned for, and the plan no longer fits it.
  8. The Price of Power 62% · word 93,000 Magic, a crown, or an alliance, gained at a price that will be collected.
  9. The Fall 72% · word 108,000 The worst loss: a city, a leader, or a character the reader trusted to survive.
  10. The Threads Converge 80% · word 120,000 The scattered characters meet again, each carrying their piece of the answer.
  11. The Last Battle 90% · word 135,000 The war and the personal stakes decided in the same place, at the same time.
  12. The World After 98% · word 147,000 What was saved, what was not, and who is left to rebuild.

A worked example

The tide stops coming in, and three heirs of a salt empire must find out why before the sea goes dead.

  1. The Old Wound. Three hundred years ago the first salt queen bargained with the sea, and never said for what.
  2. Many Homes. A princess who counts taxes, a pearl diver's son, and a disgraced priestess each want something small.
  3. The Sign. One morning the tide does not come in, and it does not come in the next day either.
  4. The Company Forms. The queen sends all three to the sea temple, which none of them want.
  5. The Company Breaks. A storm splits their ship; each washes up on a different coast.
  6. Separate Trials. The princess learns the old treaty, the diver learns the sea's language, the priestess learns the price.
  7. The Enemy Revealed. The sea is not dying. It is leaving, because the treaty has run out.
  8. The Price of Power. The priestess can call the tide back, if she gives it a life every year.
  9. The Fall. The capital's harbor dries and the city burns in the salt riots.
  10. The Threads Converge. All three reach the temple with their piece of the treaty.
  11. The Last Battle. The princess rewrites the treaty while the diver holds off the queen's soldiers.
  12. The World After. The tide returns at half height; the empire is smaller and nobody pays a life for it.

Open this template in Tabularia

Tabularia opens a new Book on the Epic Fantasy shape: its acts and a chapter for each beat, named for it, with each note pinned beside the chapter it belongs to. The book's word goal is set to 150,000 words. You name the Book before anything is created.

Open in Tabularia

Or take it away

The Word file has every beat with its note and mark, a line under each for your own plan, and the example above. It opens in Word, Google Docs, Pages, and LibreOffice.

Download for Word