A Pantser’s Guide to Beat Sheets

I’ve mentioned many times that I write by the seat of my pants. I’ve also expressed my love of beat sheets—by creating several of them. I have beat sheets that focus on plot points, another focused on character arcs, and yet another focused on romance arcs.

Wait, someone who writes by the seat of her pants likes beat sheets? The ultimate tool for plotters? This may seem like a contradiction. In fact, it probably is. I’m a walking contradiction. *smile*

So how exactly does a pantser use beat sheets without driving the muse crazy? This is a big part of my “Lost Your Pants?” workshop, which I’ll next be offering in the fall. However, I want to share some pointers here.

Using Beat Sheets After a First Draft

I first wrote about using beat sheets when I started revisions on one of my stories. I’d never used a beat sheet before, but I’d just finished drafting my first pantsed novel, and I was convinced this story was a hot mess.

During the drafting process, plot events seemed random, I never had any idea what the point of a scene was until I reached the end of the scene, and the characters never did what I thought they would. Er…in other words, the experience was completely normal for a pantsed story. *smile*

But at the time, I was a recovering plotter and didn’t have any experience with pantsing a novel-length story. The uncontrolled chaos freaked out my perfectionist, OCD, ultimate-planner-in-real-life self to no end.

Desperate to fix my “broken” story, I turned to the Save the Cat beat sheet during the revision process. I identified the turning points (beats) of my story and analyzed where they happened in the story’s word count. Lo and behold, all the turning points were there—and for the most part, in the right place too.

Nah, I couldn’t have gotten it right. The drafting process felt too chaotic for actual order to be occurring behind the curtains. So I created a beat sheet based on Larry Brooks’s Story Engineering to double check. Yep, still good. Wow.

(Note to self: Trust my muse. Muse to self: Duh.)

Not every author or every story will have things turn out as good—naturally—when pantsed. That’s where beat sheets can help us figure out what’s broken.

Do we have a problem with the overall story or just one section? Is the pacing problem caused by events happening too slowly, or do we just need to add more conflict to what we have? Can we change our word count by focusing on one or two scenes, or do we need to tweak the whole story to make it work?

As I mentioned in those posts linked above, we can use beat sheets during revision to:

• Check our story structure:
  • Do we have a story arc with a beginning, middle, and end?
  • Do we have the necessary plot turning points?
• Check our pacing:
  • Are the plot turning points close to the right place?
  • Do we need to add tension at any beat?
• Check the overall story:
  • Are we properly emphasizing turning points?
  • Do we need to adjust word count overall or in certain sections?

Since those posts, I developed beat sheets for character arcs and romance arcs as well. (Use the Michael Hauge worksheet for character arcs.) Those can help us in similar ways by analyzing the other elements of our story.

Using Beats Sheets to Create a First Draft

After my successful experience with pantsing that story, I was a pantser convert. However, I wondered if I could lessen the chaos-induced panic by using beat sheets during the first draft. Here’s where things get trickier for those of us who write by the seat of our pants.

I don’t want to piss off my muse by plotting things out in advance too much. He gets grumpy if I try telling him what to do. *smile*

I go into depth with the process I developed to plan “just enough” in my “Lost Your Pants?” workshop. (Link leads to a sign up page to hear when registration opens.) One aspect I teach is how to use story beats to decide on a direction.

I draft faster when I have a general idea of where the story needs to go. Knowing I should head “north” is better than picking a random direction (and lets me avoid feeling completely lost), but I still let my muse figure out the details of how to get there and what actually happens once I reach that point.

Like I discussed in my post about thinking in concepts, we don’t have to know the details to ensure a scene will work. Similarly, we don’t have to know the details to ensure we’re heading in the right direction.

By studying beat sheets, I know that around the 25% mark, I need to have a big turning point forcing the character from their “old,” ordinary world to their “new” world. That could mean they need to be forced into a new setting, a new situation, or dealing with new information. At this point, their problem might change or the stakes might increase, and that would lead to new goals.

A plotter would probably know exactly what that turning point will consist of. Pantsers, on the other hand, might have only a vague idea.

For my last work in progress, I knew the heroine had to realize that she’d be better off working with the hero instead of against him. That’s it. Nothing to freak out the muse. *grin*

But that little bit helped me draft the first 25%. Obviously, she had to start off working against him for there to be contrast between old and new. And obviously, she had to have reasons for believing that antagonism to be necessary. Endless scenes could meet those author goals, and having that direction helped me write scenes with a purpose.

Pantsers can figure out the vague concepts behind each of the four main beats:

• End of the Beginning/First Plot Point (around the 25% mark)
• Midpoint (around the 50% mark)
• Crisis/Black Moment/Second Plot Point (around the 75% mark)
• Climax (from around the 80% to the 99% mark)

If we know the direction to head in for each of those sections of the book, we might be less likely to be led astray by shiny plot tangents. And by keeping the beat sheet percentages in mind, we’ll know if our next scene should bring the characters closer to or keep them further from that turning point.

For example, just a few days ago, I was stuck on what the next scene in my current work-in-progress should be. I checked the word count to see how far I had to go before getting close to the next beat. Oh look! I was only a couple thousand words away.

I knew the turning point would happen at the end of a scene, so that meant I could start the turning point scene. (My muse: “Duh. Again. There was a reason I wasn’t giving you any other ideas.”)

For me, this technique alone has increased my word count substantially. I’m still a slow writer, but this is how is won NaNo (National Novel Writing Month) with 60K words in a month. I don’t lose words to plot tangents, and I draft faster with a goal to aim toward.

Ta-da! Ways for pantsers to use beat sheets that (hopefully) won’t freak out our muse. Pantsers can start by using beat sheets during revisions, and then if the beat sheets seem helpful, we can vaguely think about story structure during drafting. Not too little, not too much, just right. *smile*

(While you’re here, don’t forget to comment on my Blogiversary post for a chance to win “me.” Want me to beta read for you or pick my brain about a writing or story problem? Now’s your chance! *grin* I’ll be picking three winners—will you be one of them?)

If you’re a pantser, have you experienced the chaos-induced panic? How do you deal with that? Have you used beat sheets? Were they helpful to you or did they freak out your muse? For plotters, pantsers, and everyone in between, do you use beat sheets for drafting or revisions or both? Do you have other suggestions for how we can use beat sheets?