A planning your plot is useful when you have your story, just not all the details

Planning your plot

A skeleton plot is when you need to get your plot idea on paper but you're not quite sure how some of the parts go.

For a skeleton plot you need to ask yourself some questions;

Who- Who are your main characters?

What- What is the problem? 

Where- Where does it take place? 

When- When does it take place?

Why- Why did whoever do what they did? (optional)

How- How did they manage to solve the problem? Did they?

These questions are key to getting a perfect outline

An example:

Who- Romeo and Juliet

What- Two lovers have forbidden love

Where- ? (never read the play)

When- A long time ago

Why- They were in love

How- They killed themselves (They didn't)

The next step of a skeleton plot is to put it together in this order;

Who, Where, When, What, How, Why

So, the final product of a skeleton plot looks something like this:

Romeo and Juliet , in ------- a long time ago, Two lovers with a forbidden love killed themselves because they were in love

Pretty cool right? Your  plot might be a little inaccurate or vague, but usually people use planners or little sheets to just start a story, or get an idea on paper (or a hard drive).