I've tried lots of outlines, including the kind that looks like scrawled code on a single sheet of paper. I'm not the best planner in the world, so I need to kick myself to keep things organized. I outline a little before I start a draft, then outline as I go along. It's a changing document. At the end of every draft, the outline reflects what's on paper, and I can use it for the next revision.

But what does my outline look like? It could look like anything. There's no right or wrong way to outline. For the third big rewrite of my novel, I picked a table form with two main columns for the two point of views (Jakob and Clara) in the book. I put a mark on lines where both characters are in the same scene so I know whose point of view it's in. I plan a more complete outline with scene numbers and timing/story dates in the next round of revision. For now, my  outline looks like this:*

Outline January 2012

Jakob external book goal--   Internal book goal--
Clara external book goal --  Internal book goal --


        JAKOB                                                        CLARA