The One Outline You Can't Afford to Skip
Plotter or Pantser, this one is a must.
I first heard the terms plotter and pantser when I read Stephen King’s excellent book On Writing (if you’re dabbling with fiction and you feel that you still haven’t found your footing, it’s a fantastic place to start).
If you’ve never heard of these, here’s the briefest definition: the plotter outlines the book before sitting down to write it, while the pantser sits down to write and figures it out as he goes.
A few famous plotters, according to the internet: Agatha Christie, J.K. Rowling, John Grisham.
A few famous pantsers: Stephen King, George R.R. Martin, Margaret Atwood, Diana Gabaldon, Gillian Flynn.
Plotter or Pantser: Which One’s Better?
I’ve tried both, and concluded that, as almost everything in life, both have their pros and cons, and it all depends on your personal preference. Some people are terrified of starting such a journey without knowing exactly where they’re headed. Others wouldn’t have it any other way.
With my first two novels, I was a pantser. When I sat down to write, I had only the vaguest idea of where I wanted the stories to go. Both went in completely different directions from what I had planned, and the process of discovering things as I went was the greatest thrill of the entire writing process, and maybe even of my whole creative life (my “real life” wasn’t extremely exciting, but giving natural birth twice does get the prime spot in the hierarchy of thrills). My dear friend and sworn plotter, Serbian author Aleksandar Gatalica, would always shake his head at this and say that he couldn’t fathom the idea of anything in his book surprising him as he writes, let alone a character sneaking up on him with unpredicted behavior.
Writing as a pantser can be great fun, but it can also feel overwhelming to a struggling author. Unless the story is simple, straightforward, and without too many characters, pantsers are more prone to open up side avenues they’ll later forget to close, leaving smaller characters or plot lines unfinished. It requires keeping more things in your head to ensure you don’t forget anything or anyone, and a heavier hand when doing revisions and rewrites.
Plotting, on the other hand, makes for a less exciting writing experience, at least for me. I resorted to it for my last novel (coming out in my country in less than two weeks, and before the summer in English). It allowed me to create a very complex plot across two timelines and to toy with symmetry that I doubt I would have been able to pull off otherwise: I have a prologue set in 1998, followed by five-chapter-alternations between 2023 and 1998, and closed off by an epilogue set in 2023. I don’t know whether it was too much plot, too many characters, and too many subplots to hold in my head at all times, or the horrific fact that I’ve become middle-aged, but I found myself unable to hold it all in my head and needing to plot — heavily!
Would I do it again? Depends. If I end up writing a small story between two characters, in the style of Normal People or One Day, I’m pretty sure I can do it as a pantser. If, however, I decide for another complex drama with elements of suspense, I’m going to plot heavily.
However…
…there is one type of outlining I believe every fiction writer should absolutely do beforehand, regardless of whether they’re working on a one-page short story or a fantasy series made up of 12 tomes and 9873942793423 pages. Not everyone does it, and many people manage to get published without it.
But if you do, it will make your prose a thousand times better.
I’m talking about the internal conflict of your main characters.
In the future, I will provide character development sheets that I use for my characters. But even if you don’t go into that much detail, here’s what you need to figure out about your main characters and antagonist to make your made-up people layered, human, and relatable:
What is your character’s misbelief about themselves and life in general? Do they think that love is fickle and can’t be relied on? Do they believe that everyone’s out to get them? Do they believe that life will reward them if they’re honest and work hard? These are not oppositions to universal truths, but rather to the truths that you believe as an author and are trying to communicate through your writing.
Where did this misbelief originate? What happened in their past to make them think that this is true?
What is your character’s wrong goal based on this misbelief? What do they think will make them happy? Is it to get rich? To get married? To finish that book? To lose 20 kilograms? To become famous?
What’s their fear? What’s been keeping them from going after that goal until the story started?
What’s the inciting incident for this character, that will push them out of their comfort zone and get them to chase this wrong goal based on their misbelief?
As the story develops, how will they try to achieve this goal while steering clear of the fear that kept them from following it before the inciting incident?
When the story reaches its climax, the character will have their “aha moment” and realize that they’ve been living in misbelief and chasing after the wrong thing all along. What will that realization entail? (This is usually the theme of the book.)
How will the MC act and change after this realization, no matter whether the story ends well or badly for them?
If you plan out your character arc like this, you will understand them better than they understand themselves, and your readers will love them. It’s how you avoid Mary Sues (impeccable characters who get everything right), as well as cartoonish villains. The one thing I’m proudest of with how my writing advanced is that my beta-readers told me they could relate to every single character, including the villains. And I was able to do that thanks to this type of outline.
Try It Out
The best part is that you don’t have to write it out if you don’t want to. Whether it’s in your notebook, on your computer, or simply in your mind, what matters is that you work through it and have a clear idea of where you’re headed in that regard.
Understanding your character’s internal conflict is the foundation that makes every other part of your story stronger. Whether you prefer to plan every detail or discover the story as you go, knowing what drives your characters will automatically raise the stakes and keep your readers invested because characters are what people remember and love.
Ksenia, Thank you for this amazing character analysis sheet. Most of what I've written (and expect to write) is plot-centered, mysteries, and to a lesser extent, retelling of Greek myths. Sometimes I've struggled with the stories because they've gone flat. Generally, after an agonizing reappraisal, I've discovered that the story has gone flat because the MC has---I've neglected the character arc. Sometimes I've been able to fix it. I think this analysis gives me the tools to do so more effectively and more efficiently. Not only that, I can at least put the pieces in place for the character arc in my thinking beforehand.
This is great, Ksenia, very helpful. I am not experienced with fiction but am about to serialise my first novel. I wrote it during NaNoWriMo using a pantser approach, and that paragraph starting with "Writing as a pantser can be great fun..." describes EXACTLY the situation I find myself in. I had so much fun writing and I got carried away with all sorts of cliffhangers, teases, loose ends, characters popping in and out, and now, as I try to wrap it up with a satisfying conclusion, my head is spinning. I know what I want to happen, but I need to fill in the plot holes and my goodness, it's overwhelming!
I had never thought about the internal conflict of my characters - this is eye-opening. It's interesting - I read your post an hour or so ago, and then went back through bits of my book and it seems like my main characters have [inadvertently?] answered many of these questions. But there are a few other questions I ought to consider. There's a lot of writing advice out there, some of it conflicting, but I really appreciate your insights. They're clear and make so much sense. ☺️