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How to plan your story without suffocating it
This is the eternal debate, isn’t it? Plotter or pantser? Well, how about both?
I find I can’t write off the seat of my pants because complex twists and characterization cues escape my notice and then require a hell of a lot of editing. Which I hate. Because it makes me feel like I’m wasting time, either the time spent on the first draft or the time spent in making the first draft make sense. I can’t plot it all either, because then the emotion is gone and the whole thing reads flat.
Sound familiar? Let’s see if my solution helps you as well.
Every story should be summed up in one sentence. It’s simplistic and it misses all the wonderful detail you need to share, all the color and nuance that make it an actual story… but there it is. If you can’t say what happens in your book in one sentence, your plot might have some issues regarding pacing and tension—but that’s another story.
Now you’ve your sentence. Okay, we’re going to make it three sentences: and yes, you guessed it, this three sentences equal introduction, middle (action) and resolution. I used to do this without much thought, but for my latest projects I’ve discovered the power of beat sheets. Basically, it’s a way to chop your story just like I’m telling you to, but with actual rhyme and reason. If you have your beats well figured out, you’ll work out story issues you wouldn’t have seen otherwise! I recommend checking out Jami Gold’s beat sheet templates and articles for more info, she’s a real master at it and a sweetheart who will help out if you need it. Just follow this link and see if it works for you as well as it did for me.
Okay, so now we have the story we want to tell marked with way points. We know our characters need to start in A, make their way to B where C happens, and then D. My trick is planning… for one stage only!
And all those spur of the moment twists your characters want to include? Include them. You never thought they’d want to stop by Auntie Berta’s in their way from A to B, and you sure as hell didn’t think Auntie Berta would be a 70-year-old gun-toting, tobacco-chewing adventurer intent on joining your characters, but it turns out she is. Okay, no problem. Go with the flow, and when you reach B and plan that part, make sure to revise your outline and plan the next section taking the new development into account. Easy as that.
What do you think? What’s your take in story planning vs. pantsing?
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