Write a novel

3 Ways to Pants, Plan, and Plot Effectively

The question always comes up in author circles, "Are you a plotter or a pantser?"

There are both. Both types are good, both can be successful, and neither is better than the other.

Personally, I say there are not just those two types.

There are also planners who plan their story in advance but don't do scene outlines, etc.

Personally, I panned my first novel, knowing only three or four things I wanted it to deal with. The second one I planned and now - oh wonder! - I'm plotting.

If you'd asked me two or three years ago if I thought I'd ever plot, I'd have said, "No. I'm born to plot. I'm a born pantser!"

The truth is, I'm not. I just didn't try it because it seemed "too elaborate."

So I can only suggest you give it a try.

But now to the first area.

1. PLANNING

Legs Planning is mainly about creating a solid basic framework. For some, it's so polished that it's almost a millionaire's mansion without decorations (when plotting, the decorations would already be there 😉 ), for others it's more like a shopping list with bricks on it.

There are just different people and therefore different approaches, and that's fine.

But ... how do I plan now?

You should answer the basic story questions when planning:

- How does the book start? (a boy finds out he's a wizard).
- What is the middle like? (he lives in a wizard boarding school, learns magic, befriends a smart girl, etc.)
- How does it end? (it's the vacations and he goes back home).

Hello Harry Potter! 👋

Some people find it easier to plan the middle first because you can develop a beginning and an end from it. Just see how it fits for you.

Now you can go a little deeper into the details:

- What are the characters' names? (Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Lord Voldemort, etc.)
- What are their main character traits? (brave/nice/smart/scrupulous/strategic/helpful/etc.)
- What are their relationships like with each other? (Friends/enemies/partners/opponents/lovers/relatives/unknowns/etc.)

And now you can think about the readers*:

- What feelings do you want the book to evoke? What adjective should it use to describe it? (exciting/quiet/interesting/satisfaction/gratitude/grief/etc.)
- What genre should it be assigned to? (Fantasy/Romance/Romantasy/SciFi/Crime/Mystery/Comedy/Erotic/LGBTQI*/etc.)
- Who is the target audience? (Children/youth/[age]/adults/retirees/small children/parents/teachers/students/Americans/depressed/lonely/LGBTQI*/women/etc).

If you want, you can walk further towards the millionaire's mansion. Or you can go straight over to the ...

2. PLOTS

The best tip for all plotting that I have is *drum roll* the snowflake method.

It divides plotting into 10 steps. You start with one sentence and move step by step to 1 paragraph plot, 1 page plot, 4 page plot, scene list and much more.

You can find it here: https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/

I highly recommend this method.

However, you must not feel intimidated by the steps or the information about them.

Omit steps that you feel are unnecessary, add ones that you feel are necessary or fun, and take as much time as you need!

What you won't find in this method are character sheets.

There is a wonderful character sheet by a German author and blogger who wrote twelve books in one year.

You can find this one here: https://schriftsteller-werden.de/dokumente/Charakterbogen.doc

It is in German, but you can translate the file easily, for free and without registration e.g. with DeepL.com.

You can find the explanation here: https://schriftsteller-werden.de/dokumente/Charakter-erlaeuterung.pdf

If you want to design your characters without help, do it. But do you want to make it unnecessarily difficult for yourself?

You should write these few things in your character sheet:
- First impression (appearance, effect, etc.)
- Appearance (attitude, clothing, speech/voice, characteristics, etc.)
- Motivation (goals, dreams, etc.)
- Inner conflict
- Character traits
- Status (profession, income, etc.)
- Body (age, height, weight, build, reaction, strength, skin, body color, hair color & style, eye color, face, effect, etc.)
- Mind (intuition, willpower, persuasion, etc.)
- Likes and dislikes
- Friends and family
- Enemies
- Abilities of mind and body
- Home
- Past (facts, changes, knowledge/education, social environment, etc.).

I think I've said enough about plotting for now. Let's move on to the ...

3. PANTSER

How to effectively be a Pantser is easy to answer: you write away.

You don't have to have anything but a vague idea in your head.

It can be helpful to track your progress, because some (the emphasis is on some!) Pantsers tend to give up more quickly because they don't know how to continue.

E.g. if you have written a thousand words, you can put one paperclip on the next, and after 50,000 words you already have 50 paperclips. This way you make your progress tangible.

Or do like I do and enter when you write and how much on NaNoWriMo.org and have stats, charts, and average times and speeds effortlessly generated.


To sum it up, decide if you:

have more or less of a plan -> planning
have a more detailed process and plan -> plotting
want to write on the fly -> pantsing

Have fun writing/planning/plotting,
Evie