Article Outline Generator

Almost every first draft has the same fault: a long introduction and no room left for the part that mattered. That is a proportion problem rather than a writing problem, and it is fixable before you start. This divides your word target across a recognised article shape so each section gets a budget that adds up exactly, and gives each one a job and some prompts — because a section with a word count and no purpose is just a longer blank page.

Structure

Target word count

The sections always add up to exactly this.

Prompts per section

Ideas for what goes in each part.

Standard newsroom practice since the nineteenth century: most important first, so the piece survives being cut from the bottom.

Your outline will appear here.

What this generator does

Budgets and structures at once. The story structure planner here divides a word target across a narrative form for fiction; this does the equivalent for non-fiction, where the shapes are different and the sections have jobs rather than dramatic functions. The budgets sum exactly to your target using the same allocation discipline as the rest of this site, so no section is left with nothing and none of the total goes missing.

How to use this tool

Choose a structure — inverted pyramid, or problem and solution.
Set your target word count.
Build the outline, then lock any section you are happy with and rebuild the rest.
Copy it into whatever you write in.

Understanding the controls

Structure: The inverted pyramid puts the most important thing first so the piece survives being cut from the bottom — standard newsroom practice. Problem and solution is the conventional expository shape. Each has its source named.
Target word count: The sections always add up to exactly this. Change it and the proportions hold while the numbers move.
Prompts per section: How many suggestions for what goes in each part. One for a skeleton, three or four for a full brief.
Lock: Keeps a section's prompts while the others are regenerated. The budgets always recalculate, so locking does not freeze the arithmetic.

Worked examples

1,200 words, inverted pyramid: 180 lead, 360 essential detail, 420 context, 240 tail — 1,200 exactly.
800 words, problem and solution: 200 problem, 160 why it persists, 280 approach, 160 limits.
Locking the lead: Its prompts come back unchanged; everything else is redrawn.
A target of 3 words: Refused with an explanation rather than four empty sections.

Common use cases

Planning a blog post or article before writing a word of it
Diagnosing a draft that is the right length in the wrong places
Giving a freelance writer a brief with structure and proportions
Teaching article structure with a concrete worked example
Getting started when the topic is clear and the shape is not

How this generator works

Each structure declares a share for every section, and those shares are apportioned over your word target by the largest-remainder method — every section gets the floor of its share and the remainder is handed out one word at a time, so the parts sum to the target by construction rather than by rounding luck. Where the proportions would leave a section with nothing, a word is moved from the longest section and the page says so. Prompts are drawn without repetition from a bank written for that section specifically.

Randomness and fairness

The draw decides which prompts appear in each section. The structure, the shares and the budgets are computed, so pressing again changes the suggestions and never the arithmetic.

For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.

Assumptions this tool makes

Sections are roughly equal in density, so a word budget is a fair proxy for how much room each idea gets.

Limitations and good to know

It structures; it does not write, and it has no idea what your article is about.
The proportions are conventional teaching shapes rather than findings — a good piece can ignore all of them.
The prompts are generic. They are there to start a section, not to be its content.
Two structures only. Modern proprietary content frameworks are deliberately not reproduced.
Nothing is saved between visits — copy the outline before you close the page.

Common mistakes

Writing the introduction first and at length: The budget is there to stop exactly that. If the lead wants 400 words of a 1,200-word piece, the piece is about something else.
Treating the proportions as rules: They are conventions and the page says so. Adjust the target and rebuild if a section genuinely needs more room.

Practical tips

Write the section that carries the argument first, whatever order it appears in.
Check a finished draft against the budgets — an over-long context section is the most common way a piece loses its point.

Privacy and your data

Your settings stay in your browser. There is nothing to upload, nothing is stored between visits, and nothing is written into the page address. Analytics records that the tool ran and how many sections it produced.

Frequently asked questions

How is this different from the story structure planner?: That one is for fiction: it divides a manuscript across three-act, Freytag or kishōtenketsu. This is for non-fiction, where the shapes are journalistic and expository and each section has a job rather than a dramatic function.
Do the word counts really add up?: Exactly, every time. Proportional shares almost never come out whole, so the remainder is handed out a word at a time rather than rounded away.
Why only two structures?: Because these two are conventional shapes with genuine sources — newsroom practice and standard expository writing. Modern proprietary content frameworks are somebody's copyrighted work and are not reproduced here.