The pantsers guide to plotting: the wonder of a beat sheet

How's it going? Are you managing to write much? Or are you feeling a bit bleh about writing? Yeah, same. Join me as I try and figure out a way out of this writing funk.

This is the behind-the-scenes commentary for the serialised novella The Calibray Job.

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

Writing is magic. The delete key is most magical of all.- Kieron Gillen, Newsletter 208: Meet Execute

I don't ever really write outlines when I'm working on a new project. I'm 100% a ‘pantser’, as they say. I like the freedom of finding new alleyways and avenues through the story without having to stick to a rigid plan the whole time. That, however, doesn't mean I don't write anything beforehand.

I swear by the beat sheet. For those of you who are unaware, a beat sheet is, as world-famous cat saviour Blake Snyder said, and I'm paraphrasing here, essentially a list of emotional moments that help a writer outline their story.

They're a relatively common part of the process for most writers across a number of different mediums. The way I tend to work usually revolves around me writing a 'beat' for each chapter of my story with a particular focus on how these moments affect my characters.

‘The group splits with the facility team ready to dive. Beck makes the girl come with them to [spoilers redacted]. This pisses off everyone, bar Jaark, but mainly Llynwen. The group leaves.’¹

The detail I use for each of these 'beats' is entirely flexible. Sometimes it's a long paragraph with a fair amount of detail. Other times it's a sentence or even a few words. The only real rule here is that it gives me some idea of where this particular scene fits into the overall emotional story.

I don't have the mental capacity to remember every character's wants and needs within the wider framework of my story as I'm going along. At the same time, I have no desire to create a longer beat sheet that you might describe as teetering on the verge of becoming an outline.

There's nothing wrong with writing a fully-fledged outline. It works for a lot of writers. It just doesn't work for me. Outlines tend to be a procrastination tool for me. They also tend to kill my excitement for the story as I'm usually sick of the characters or plot by the time I'm finished writing one. This is why I lean on the beat sheet to keep track of my story as I'm writing.

My beat sheets, as I mentioned, are light on specifics. I tend to just describe the scene in the broadest possible terms in order to give myself the freedom I like as a ‘pantser’ when I'm actually writing. For example, the 'beat' describing an upcoming episode of The Calibray Job reads like this; "Everything goes to hell." It does what it says on the tin.

When I sat down to write this particular episode, I had the freedom to figure out exactly how everything goes to hell. This is kind of like a paint-by-numbers approach. Every beat on my beat sheet is a number, all I have to do is go in and paint between the gaps.

Publish your enthusiasm

I'm sure that this isn't at all news to a lot of you out there. It's not like I invented beat sheets, but I thought it might be useful to talk about how I plot out my story in a loose way that still allows me to ‘pants’ to my heart's content. I'm writing this to, as our lord and saviour Austin Kleon says, show your work.

One other thing I wanted to mention is something I picked up when I did the ‘Pixar in a Box’ course at Khan Academy. They use this structure to sketch out the rough shape of a story. “Once upon a time, there was _____. Every day, _____. One day, _____. Because of that, _____. Because of that, _____. Until finally, _____.”

Simple and punchy. You can fit most stories into this structure. Before I start my beat sheet, most of the time I'll fill out this structure to give me a sense of how everything will flow throughout the story.

Often, I’ll redo my beat sheet after around two-thirds of the story is written. I find that having that initial idea of what shape act three will take early on is useful, but this second beat sheet is where I really find the climax of the story. I’ll take a look at the various alleyways and avenues I’ve uncovered while writing act one and act two and then I’ll redraw myself a rough map of where I’m going next.

If you're struggling with your latest writing project, try going back a few steps and bashing out a quick beat sheet. Or, if you've already got one, try revisiting it. Does it still excite you? Could it be better? Is it perfect but you just need to give it a cheeky re-read? Test out the Pixar method for your story. Or, if all else fails, maybe just go take a bath.

1. This is the original description for episode ten from my beat sheet for The Calibray Job. You can see an alternate name for Nera I considered.