How I’m Transitioning From A Pantser to A Plotter (Or: Save the Cat Saved My Life)

In the fiction writing world, there are two schools of thought: plotters and pantsers. Plotters outline their stories ahead of time. Pantsers, as the name suggests, fly by the seat of their pants. I’ve always been a pantser. But recently, I had an epiphany: Maybe my pantsing tendencies are the reason why I have exponentially more unfinished novels on my hard drive than finished ones. And maybe plotting is just what I need to help develop a sustainable novel-writing career.

When it came to plotting, I wasn’t quite sure where to start. Normally I think of a setting, plop some characters in it, and jump into writing with only a general idea of where I’m going. But as I thought about how I’m a chronic under-plotter, I felt more and more certain that plotting was the answer to help me actually finish novels that people actually want to read (as much as I wish you could write a bestselling novel with just ~vibes~, story needs structure, too–and that’s a weak spot of mine). However, I was worried about how to teach myself how to plot a novel. And that’s where Save the Cat! Writes A Novel by Jessica Brody–highly recommended by Nadine Brandes and Sara Ella in their webinars–swooped in to save the day.

Save the Cat! Writes A Novel is based on the Save the Cat screenwriting technique pioneered by Blake Snyder in his book of the same name. The book walks you through a structure cheat sheet: the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet, which is divided into three acts, which are further subdivided into fifteen total beats. The formula is laid out very clearly, and that was EXTREMELY helpful to me–you mean all I have to do is fill in the main points of the story?! Sign me up! I’ve written a lot of novels, but I genuinely never knew that plotting a book–or even writing a book–could be this easy. Using the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet, I plotted out an entire novel in a two-hour car ride to Tennessee last fall.

It was also encouraging for me to be reminded that you don’t have to be a 100% plotter or 100% pantser. In fact, most writers are a combination of both. Every writer needs a different level of detail before an idea is ready to be written. And what’s needed might vary from story to story, too.

For me, I always thought plotting killed the magic. If you go to all the trouble to write an outline (I know some authors who write 10,000-word outlines, which is incomprehensible to me), then to me, it feels like you don’t need to write the actual book because the story is already down in black and white. But as I’ve worked through brainstorming and plotting The Art of Staying, I’ve actually found that the opposite is true: I felt confident and excited going into the drafting process at the beginning of January. It felt like the hard part was done because the entire story is already in my head. Now, all I need to do is get it on paper. And I left a little wiggle room for the magic to happen, too.

So far, my outline is working great. Despite having a crazy month in January where my mind was very far from my story most of the time, I was still able to continue writing and moving the story along. It wasn’t hard to get back into the story when I did have a chance to sit down and work on it, because I had so many resources prepared.

Before I started writing this particular novel, I decided that I wanted to have the following materials ready:

Save the Cat! beat sheet. I typed out each beat in the Save the Cat! process, including what percentage of the novel/approximate word count that beat should be, and then briefly described what will happen in that beat. For example: “Opening image, 0-1%. Viv is in the Atlanta airport on her way to Miami for rehearsal.” I am not a very linear writer and I’ve been jumping around somewhat. But it’s easier to jump around when I have an idea of what’s happening before and after a certain scene.Character cheat sheet. This lists all of my characters and the basic information I need to know about each one–such as their motivation, flaw, desire, personality, physical appearance, job on the ship, age, home country, etc.Map of the ship. I’m a visual person and I always hand-draw maps for my novels. That way, I don’t have to scroll back through my novel looking for the answer every time I want to offhandedly mention a certain place on a certain floor of the ship.Timeline. This document is a very simple timeline mapping out the pace of the story. It also includes a general idea of the ship’s itinerary, and of Viv’s daily and weekly schedule.Research notes. In this document, I compiled all of my random notes from my research (done via YouTube, Google, and books) about what it’s like to be a performer on a cruise ship. For example, there is a seafarer’s house in San Juan where cruise line employees can send their mail.Dances. Since this book revolves around dancers who perform in two shows onboard the ship, I wanted to have the basics of each show (a production dance show and a musical) written out before jumping in. Again, this prevents me from wasting time later going, “Hmm, how many numbers did I say are in this show?”Theme. Here, I brain dumped my thoughts/quotes I liked about the theme of the novel–staying and belonging.Atmosphere. While this isn’t a page in my binder, I have always been a firm believer in the importance of the atmosphere when you’re writing a novel. So I made sure to create a Pinterest aesthetic board, a WIP playlist, and purchase a specific candle scent to burn while I write (sea salt vanilla). These associations all help you get into the story.

Once I had all of these elements complete, I felt equipped to start drafting, knowing that I wouldn’t have to stop to Google something every other paragraph. I spent the month of December fleshing out these documents as well as simply brainstorming and thinking about the story, letting details and ideas bounce around in my head. By the New Year, I had everything ready to print out and put in a binder so I could have them handy when needed during drafting.

This is an entirely different novel writing experience than I’ve ever had before (you might say it’s a… novel experience. Sorry). But so far, I think I’m a fan.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? What do you think are some pros and cons of both? Have you ever heard of Save the Cat? (I highly recommend it!)