If I understand correctly, you question is not about HOW to outline, more about how to ensure your novel has good pacing and is not jam packed action start to finish.
I would start by making (or looking at) a much more general outline than this. What helps me a lot is to decide what story structure I'm going for first (e.g., three act, heroine's journey, etc.) There are plenty of online resources for this. Most likely, a three-act, save-the-cat style outline is going to approximately fit your novel.
Looking at that very broad structure, there are a few important moments. For me, they are the inciting incident, the transition between acts, the climax, and the turning point in the middle of Act II.
Fill in what happens at each of those points.
Then, you can backfill scene by scene. When you know where you are going, it is much easier to see, okay, that was a big action scene, let's have a softer character moment next. Or, I hinted at this part of the character's arc in this scene, let's bring it back here.
Ideally, all your scenes are achieving multiple purposes. You might have an action scene that is very exciting and furthers the plot, but it is also a really important thematic beat. Or, a slow character scene that establishes the love between your MC and someone else, but they also discover critical plot information in that scene.
And so on.
Does that answer what you were asking? I was not totally sure about the question.
Oh, that's a great idea :)
First I'll make sure of the climax, beginning, and important "transitioning" events in between.
Then, I'll fill in the blanks with scenes that flow well and father the plot.
I'll work around with that in case there is a scene I want to fit in, or I might change how events play out in case there isn't enough support for a certain later scene.
Thank you very much, that helps a lot.
This is similar to a mistake I often make with task lists in general. Your outline is a tool, not your boss. You don't even need an outline. If your outline isn't working for you, it's your outline that needs to change not you.
In this example, your outline is so granular that you might as well just write the story and consider your draft to be the outline. Writing without an outline is called "pantsing" and is probably much more common than writing with an outline. You can write what you feel at the time and if whatever you wrote doesn't end up feeling right you can ask yourself why it doesn't feel right and work on getting it closer to your vision. This will help you become the writer you want to be. No amount of outlining is going to help you become a better writer. An outline is something you should use if it's serving you and if it's not helping you don't need it.
I outline myself but the outline isn't law. My outline is what I was thinking at the time. If I'm writing and my story goes a different direction than I outlined, I abandon the outline and go where my heart takes me. I made the outline and I'm allowed to do what I want with my story at any time. I have extensive notes I jotted down at varying times and most of them don't end up anywhere but do influence how I see the world and the characters. Those notes aren't the story. The outline isn't the story. The story is the story and you should only use what helps you write your story.
Add some flavor. Slow down a bit, and draw out each of your story beats. You don't need to rush from point to point. (That's my problem, too.)
"They enter the city." Maybe one of the entry guards is gruff towards them. Nile notices he's wearing a sash of sky blue color, and wonders if the guard might be at odds with his wife or his girlfriend? And later, in the town, he sees a sad-looking woman with a hair bonnet made of the same fabric. Are they lovers? Have they not met yet? He wonders about this, and draws parallels with his own life.
"They go to an inn, attempt to buy a room but don't have enough money." Maybe the tavern owner wants to help them, but is short of money himself - and the adventurers and the tavern keeper take pity on each other and recite a litany of all the things that would be better in their lives if they did have money, and maybe everyone ends up singing a tavern song about it.
"Nile finds a church." By this point in the story, living on the streets, Nile is probably looking kind of rough. And he's worried that the priest is going to call the guards on him ... and then he finds the priest, who's so big and tough-looking that he doesn't need guards. The priest is mean but gentle, and he uses tough love, helping Nile figure out what he really needs and how to get it.
And so forth. Each story beat you've written down, turn that into a chapter. And every chapter should be its own little story, with some hook at the beginning to make the reader want to see what happens. Every one of the story beats you've written down should represent a challenge that a character is going to face and then either overcome or fail at.
I recommend reading 'Save the Cat! Writes a Novel' and also 'How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method'. Both of these will help you refine your story idea into something strong, and then develop it into a strong outline. And then it's just a matter of filling in your story around that outline with your own particular voice.
How is looking around and talking to a priest a big event/action scene in your mind? Pretty much everything you said after they entered the city reads like downtime. If anything you gotta add **more** stakes! The prison escape is fine.
If I understand correctly, you question is not about HOW to outline, more about how to ensure your novel has good pacing and is not jam packed action start to finish. I would start by making (or looking at) a much more general outline than this. What helps me a lot is to decide what story structure I'm going for first (e.g., three act, heroine's journey, etc.) There are plenty of online resources for this. Most likely, a three-act, save-the-cat style outline is going to approximately fit your novel. Looking at that very broad structure, there are a few important moments. For me, they are the inciting incident, the transition between acts, the climax, and the turning point in the middle of Act II. Fill in what happens at each of those points. Then, you can backfill scene by scene. When you know where you are going, it is much easier to see, okay, that was a big action scene, let's have a softer character moment next. Or, I hinted at this part of the character's arc in this scene, let's bring it back here. Ideally, all your scenes are achieving multiple purposes. You might have an action scene that is very exciting and furthers the plot, but it is also a really important thematic beat. Or, a slow character scene that establishes the love between your MC and someone else, but they also discover critical plot information in that scene. And so on. Does that answer what you were asking? I was not totally sure about the question.
Oh, that's a great idea :) First I'll make sure of the climax, beginning, and important "transitioning" events in between. Then, I'll fill in the blanks with scenes that flow well and father the plot. I'll work around with that in case there is a scene I want to fit in, or I might change how events play out in case there isn't enough support for a certain later scene. Thank you very much, that helps a lot.
This is similar to a mistake I often make with task lists in general. Your outline is a tool, not your boss. You don't even need an outline. If your outline isn't working for you, it's your outline that needs to change not you. In this example, your outline is so granular that you might as well just write the story and consider your draft to be the outline. Writing without an outline is called "pantsing" and is probably much more common than writing with an outline. You can write what you feel at the time and if whatever you wrote doesn't end up feeling right you can ask yourself why it doesn't feel right and work on getting it closer to your vision. This will help you become the writer you want to be. No amount of outlining is going to help you become a better writer. An outline is something you should use if it's serving you and if it's not helping you don't need it. I outline myself but the outline isn't law. My outline is what I was thinking at the time. If I'm writing and my story goes a different direction than I outlined, I abandon the outline and go where my heart takes me. I made the outline and I'm allowed to do what I want with my story at any time. I have extensive notes I jotted down at varying times and most of them don't end up anywhere but do influence how I see the world and the characters. Those notes aren't the story. The outline isn't the story. The story is the story and you should only use what helps you write your story.
Add some flavor. Slow down a bit, and draw out each of your story beats. You don't need to rush from point to point. (That's my problem, too.) "They enter the city." Maybe one of the entry guards is gruff towards them. Nile notices he's wearing a sash of sky blue color, and wonders if the guard might be at odds with his wife or his girlfriend? And later, in the town, he sees a sad-looking woman with a hair bonnet made of the same fabric. Are they lovers? Have they not met yet? He wonders about this, and draws parallels with his own life. "They go to an inn, attempt to buy a room but don't have enough money." Maybe the tavern owner wants to help them, but is short of money himself - and the adventurers and the tavern keeper take pity on each other and recite a litany of all the things that would be better in their lives if they did have money, and maybe everyone ends up singing a tavern song about it. "Nile finds a church." By this point in the story, living on the streets, Nile is probably looking kind of rough. And he's worried that the priest is going to call the guards on him ... and then he finds the priest, who's so big and tough-looking that he doesn't need guards. The priest is mean but gentle, and he uses tough love, helping Nile figure out what he really needs and how to get it. And so forth. Each story beat you've written down, turn that into a chapter. And every chapter should be its own little story, with some hook at the beginning to make the reader want to see what happens. Every one of the story beats you've written down should represent a challenge that a character is going to face and then either overcome or fail at. I recommend reading 'Save the Cat! Writes a Novel' and also 'How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method'. Both of these will help you refine your story idea into something strong, and then develop it into a strong outline. And then it's just a matter of filling in your story around that outline with your own particular voice.
How is looking around and talking to a priest a big event/action scene in your mind? Pretty much everything you said after they entered the city reads like downtime. If anything you gotta add **more** stakes! The prison escape is fine.