Recently I did a post on my method of doing character profiles, and it was… kind of a lot. Or it might be for some people. I’m one of those writers that prefers to go into a new story knowing a lot about my characters, even if I’m pantsing absolutely everything else. But you might not be that way. Plenty of authors pants their characters, which is a totally valid approach. If that’s you, filling out a character profile before you start writing is likely an unhelpful, overwhelming prospect. And even when you do plan your characters meticulously, sometimes side characters pop up out of nowhere demanding to be included, and you don’t want to derail and entire writing session to figure out their whole backstory before you can go ahead and write about them.

Even for the most dedicated pantser, it’s hard to start with nothing at all where characters are concerned, particularly if there are other parts of the story you don’t feel like pantsing. In honor of that, here are three things it’s helpful to know about your characters going into a story, and three things you absolutely do not need to worry about until you are well into the book. My goal here is to give you an alternate way of planning out the important elements of a character (like motivation, conflict, and growth) while leaving you as much room as possible to f*ck around and find out.

Know: what are they wrong about?

Answering this question will give you the foundation for a character arc – maybe even a whole plot. All your characters need something they’re going to change their mind about over the course of the story. This is often a deeply-held personal conviction about the world, a lie they’ve been told, a component of their morality, or a belief they have about themselves. Characters should grow, and if you know nothing else about them before you sit down to write, you should at least know where they’re starting from.

Know: what will never change about them?

This is the foundation of your character’s personality. Answering this will give you information about how your character tends to make decisions. I think you can pants this one a little bit, though not for too long. Within the first two or three major actions the character takes, there should be a pattern emerging in how they conduct themselves. Often this takes the form of a conviction or idea they’re never going to change their mind about. Sometimes it’s simply a way they have of conducting themselves that characterizes the way in which they drive the plot forward (for example, assertiveness, empathy, or being a walking disaster). If you are pantsing your characters, this is something you should know about them by the end of the first act.

Know: what will they never forget?

This one can wait a little longer, and you can definitely pants it, but you should have a handle on it by the end of the second act (in other words, before you start writing the build-up to the climax). Give them a memory. This memory, for better or worse, is fixed in their brain somehow, and it forms the basis of one or both of the other things you already know about them. So look at those things and ask, why? What led them to that incorrect belief you’re going to change their mind about? Why do they behave the way they do? Draw this back to a poignant moment from their past that made them who they are today.

(This is where all those YA protagonists with dead parents came from. Cliche? Maybe. Effective, when done right? Most definitely, so who cares? If you need permission to kill off your protagonist’s parents, you have it.)

Don’t worry about: appearance

If there is a detail of your character’s appearance that is relevant to the plot (like walking with a limp, or having an eerily similar eye color to a character they are secretly related to, or something like that), or if you are one of those people who easily visualizes your characters as a natural part of your creative process, by all means, spend time on this. But if you aren’t that person, and your character’s appearance isn’t plot relevant, I hereby release you from needing to care, no matter how many character profiles on the internet demand to know their eye color, height, weight, and preferred manicure style. Enjoy not having the temptation to write an introductory scene where your character meticulously describes themselves in the mirror before sighing and saying to thin air, “Well, I guess that’ll have to do” and running off to catch the bus.

Don’t worry about: quirks & habits

I have never, in my thirteen years of writing novels, managed to come up with a quirk/tick/habit for a character in advance that actually made its way into the story in a believable way. If you have, then I bow to you, oh mighty one. But in my humble opinion, this one is better off pantsed.

I talked about this in my character profile post as well, but there is something so magical and fun to me about discovering a character’s quirks and habits as I write. It’s one of my favorite parts of the process, and the best ones I’ve ever come up with have all come to me on the fly, as if the character looked over their shoulder at me, right through the fourth wall, and said, “By the way, I always fall asleep in the car.” This is my favorite thing to pants, and if you’ve been trying to force yourself to come up with these details before you get started, I encourage you to give the pantser lifestyle a try on this one. You might end up pleasantly surprised by your own creativity.

Don’t worry about: likes & dislikes

You are not making a sim. It doesn’t help you to know that the character who just walked into your head out of the blue likes spaghetti and hates tuna casserole, or that their favorite color is blue, or that they’ve always meant to get into growing bonsai trees but haven’t found the time. Like quirks and habits, these things will naturally fall out of the story as you write it, whether you plan them or not. Fixating on them too much in the early stages of planning can lead to a lot of time and effort wasted obsessing over how to fit them into the story in a way that feels natural – and, spoilers, you never will. Shoehorning in details about your character’s bonsai-trimming aspirations or distaste for tuna isn’t going to enrich your story. But if you allow these details to pop up naturally as you write, they might do just that.

What strongly held opinions do you have about what should and should not be pantsed when it comes to characters? Comment and let me know!

Happy writing!