Julie
Basic
Hi, Litopians! In this CraftChat we're looking at ways to organise our ideas and writing. Different methods work for different writers. Some love being organised, some don't; there are no rules. Please feel free to share your own ideas and experiences and let us know what works for you.
As before, the discussion thread will be open for FIVE DAYS from when we post the Chat. Let us know your thoughts. If you disagree with anything, that’s fine. Tell us why. We love hearing from you. All opinions are welcome and valid additions to our learning. Keep it civil.
Rachel (RK Capps), Galadriel, Kay (Ancora Imparo)
ORGANISING IDEAS
How do you organise your ideas? What do you do with all those bits of paper you scribble on? Collate them, so you can find them? Think you know where they are, only to lose them? Or forget you had an interesting spark or lead? Perhaps you work diligently and everything is catalogued and filed neatly.
This is not a piece on the ‘right’ way to do it, or even the best way. This is a chance for you to reflect on your own habits. What works for you? Or doesn’t?
How I do it/ Have done it
I’m always open to inspiration, and when snippets of this or that, or good ideas arrive, they don’t always wait until I’m at my desk. I’m not confined to words either. Natural materials found on walks; coloured paper; artwork; cards and music have all provided inspiration. I see two broad categories in how I gather and organise ideas.
My First Way belongs to immediate inspiration, lines I’d penned off the cuff for a poem; a found quotation from another book, facts, new words, and any other minutiae. Nothing is written or kept in one place, mind. I’ll write on the first thing that’s to hand. Sometimes, it’s on my phone. There’s my scrap paper pile; usually this is a print of a draft, and I’ll write on the back or in the margins when anything grabs me.
Yes, I’ll scribble on whatever is in front of me. Last week, I wrote a conversion of pounds to kilograms (nothing to do with writing; I just fancied knowing my weight) on a corner of paper poking out. Turned out, I’d penned on a rather sweet picture one of my kids had drawn when they were little. Maybe, if I kept a tidy desk these things wouldn’t happen. I like the thought of a tidy desk, and thought becomes deed maybe once every couple of months. If my drinks’ coaster is buried under a paper mountain, I know I’ve got too much going on.
Yet, that is my default way of working. I enjoy the messy busyness of my desk. And while I may be procrastinating with a bit of paper shuffling, I do find interesting items that may be of some use – in the near future, if they don’t get filed away again.
I’m in the process of moving house, so my corkboards (including some lovely hexagonal felt and foam ones I bought from Amazon, which I recommend) are empty of newspaper snippets, autumn leaves, a peg doll, etc. However, the bulk of my pica tendency is paper. There is a great fan of it bridging keyboard and monitor. Like compost, it (and the other piles) gets moved from place to place. I’ll slide fragments into diaries, folders or notebooks. Like all good mulch left over time, sifting it yields bounty. Sometimes. Occasionally, the ink has faded out or there’s been a spillage so I’m trying to read blurred, dried-out corrugated paper. Because of the house move, I’ve been chucking out a lot of paper (to be recycled), I’ve come across parts of poems and stories I wrote twenty-odd years ago; leaflets; letters from friends; art cards and newspaper articles; like a magpie, I’ve hoarded any fragment that’s called to me.
Yesterday, I found a small scrap of yellowed, lined paper. I didn’t realise I still had my late mother’s handwritten list of music she said I might enjoy. She passed thirty years ago this year. The first words on this scrap read: Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov 1844-1908, Scheherazade op 35.
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade op.35 - Leif Segerstam - Sinfónica de Galicia - YouTube
Well, it took me back. I’m listening to this music as I type for CC. This note, my grief and that music inspired me many years ago to write the following poem:
BEREAVEMENT
I confuse your need for closeness and company
I let the phone ring and the door open with the flow
of sympathies and flowers and when the sorrow-sharers
arrive, you wish they would all go away.
I diffuse all emotions of grief and despair –
leave you with a smart.
I am the cardigan brought straight from hospital
the one you hide in plastic at the back of the wardrobe.
I am the telephone where you pretend in your new distance
that you wait for the call; listen to my hollow purr in the receiver.
I am the only bouquet that burned in the fire
The little black diary tracking this long path where you write the coda.
I am the empty or half-drunk antibiotics
The little notes of despair left for you to find around the house.
Listen to me in Scheherazade, Doris Day, Annie Lennox
then wipe me away in the tears.
I am the drawn floral curtains, the hush of ward 13.
I am the uninvited faery - the one you call wicked.
This is the curse that cannot be undone.
I am not loud.
I am the empty space that remains.
I am the ash upon the hills you will never return to.
I also found (on an ‘ancient’ mind-map about neo-mysticism!) another scribbled poem: ‘Malcolm Williams, Pipe Song & the opening line is Plant, Spirit, In me your power. It’s a heady little poem, but I can’t find anything on the internet about him. Or the poem. So much so, I’m wondering if I wrote it myself! Let me know, if you’re familiar with either poet or poem. On that note (pun intended) is
The Second Way I organise ideas for novel writing. In this area, I’ve done the inspiration bit, now the work has to be more focused. I’ve approached outlining and similar tasks in lots of different ways over the years. I’ve been unsuccessful with Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat Beat Sheet, but perhaps that’s because it’s a spreadsheet . . .
A paper version works quite well, as most have seen with JK Rowling’s’ demonstration. I think it’s the hand, pen, paper relationship that engages the mind better, pulling me into deep consideration.
I’ve used index cards; great fun for condensing chapters and scenes, if you use as few a words as possible on the cards. However, I found them impossible to lay out on the carpet or table (especially hazardous around grandkids and dogs). I appreciate the method, but I still can’t make them work for me.
Post-it notes. Similar to index cards but do they stay stuck on the wall/window? Do they heckers.
I’ve also done plenty of Vogel’s story and character arcs in notebooks where I try to precis my story under neat headings. Prior to all this, I did ‘pants’ a lot, which has led to an enormous outtakes file on my computer.
Several years ago, I did NaNoWriMo and got a voucher for a new startup called Dabble. I have not tried Scrivener or any other program, so nothing to compare it to. However, I like it. Each scene gets its own page, which are sorted into Chapters. Later, if I want to move a scene or a chapter, there’s a drag and drop option. For me, this makes it very easy to see what I’ve got going on and where. It also has virtual index cards, which can’t get spilled. I can even attach the cards to my document, so I can move elements in novel around from here. Dabble does what I want it to. There’s a heap more to this program, but I’ll leave it to you, should you want to explore it.
Finally, for those instantaneous thoughts and moments, it’s all about pen and a bit of paper. And in these moments, when I’m reading or deciphering my scribblings, I inwardly smile at this particular line of my history that has unfolded over time. On paper or in notebooks, it marks things that were once important or at the forefront of my mind; it shows changes in my handwriting, or how I always wrote woman as ‘womon’ (of the moon) because I was very much a ‘in the body-based feminist,’ and the sorts of doodling I used to enjoy (spirals); poetry topics I wanted to write about; literature I was reading. My churning out of Schemes of Work and creative lessons for teaching; diary entries for needing to pass this or achieve that. All no longer important. Or relevant.
If I put writings from my twenty-year-old self next to notes from my current age of fifty-six, well, I find a poignancy in the essence of that younger, before children, university, career, self, still finding its way into my present life. Perhaps somethings can’t be thrown away or truly forgotten. So, when you’re foraging for inspiration or dancing with your muse, and your ideas contain the essence of you, then find a way to remember where you put them.
Notes and diagrams show how famous authors including J.K. Rowling and Sylvia Plath planned out their novels | Daily Mail Online
10 Writing Tips from J.K. Rowling - YouTube
Galadriel
ALL DESKS ARE WELCOME
Albert Einstein said: ‘If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?’
Untidy desk = untidy mind.
Don’t you believe it.
Do you need to organise your desk/house/room/life/partner/children/colleagues/...writing?
Whatever method you use for organising anything, even your Work(s) In Progress, boils down to one thing: whatever works for you. Some psychologists will tell you clutter and mess can add to stress. Well, probably. But so can putting everything away tidily and then not being able to find a damn thing.
Writing a novel isn’t quite like misplacing those warm socks you were keeping for when it got cold. There’s so much going on in a novel: main characters; sub characters; descriptions; traits; history; main plot; sub plot; backstory reader needs to know; backstory reader doesn’t need to know; vital explanations; solid exposition (I promise you, these will end up in Cuts); conflict booster; where to plant Seeds…
You’ll have your own list. What do you do to organise all those wonderful characters and plots you’re creating, so you don’t forget them? Some writers swear by Scrivener; some use other software. There are lots around. Google ‘Tools for Organising Your Novel’ – and take your pick.
I keep it simple. I have a Word document for typing the story out in. I have another document with copious notes where I chuck anything that occurs to me: a name, a word I like, a tiny idea, a stonking big idea, something I read about quantum physics that sounds like magic...It all goes in Notes. I have headings, too, so I can do a FindFile and find the part I need fairly quickly. I read these Notes over often to keep things fresh in my mind. I love physical notebooks, too, so I start one for ideas on whatever story I’m planning. I have notebooks, large and small, everywhere: bed-side table, desk, chair where I watch TV, bag, and a box full of more beautiful notebooks just waiting their turn.
Then I get on with writing and forget all about the Notes.
I also start a Word file marked Cuts. If I think I can do without a paragraph or two, or a scene or three, but I'm not sure – I cut them anyway, put them in the file marked Cuts and then I don't feel they’re ‘lost’.
Then I get on with writing and forget all about the Cuts.
When I’ve completed a final draft, I copy the file, call it WHATEVER/2 and then start editing/rewriting. I read over the Notes file, and the notebooks, check if I’ve covered the bases: theme, structure, conflict, mystery, fantasy, tropes, whatever I’ve been aiming for.
If I made a 1-30 I check to see if I missed out anything important. A 1-30 is something one of our lecturers at Uni used to use. Traditionally published, he put the hard work into planning his books in 1-30 plot-points (could be 1-30 chapters; that’s up to you). That way, he had a list of what happens when and to whom, so he could see if tension or conflict was rising or falling; if a character was winning or failing and how regularly the ‘rocks’ hit them etc.
He would adjust the 1-30 until he was happy with the structure, degree of conflict, tension, mystery, twists, pace etc and then he’d start writing. Often, he said, he would end up tweaking the 1-30 because the characters had taken control of the story and had run off in a direction he hadn’t foreseen, but liked. That was okay. Adjust and adapt. Because nothing is written in stone. That’s what your Delete button is for. Delete, re-plan, keep writing. (If you can't bear to lose anything, copy the file as WHATEVER/version 3,065 and then start rewriting.)
I tried a 1-30 for one of my books. It was good to see it all progress. I used coloured ink for tension and conflict. Blue where I thought it got boring or too slow. You can do whatever you like.
Another lecturer used a card index. She wrote all her plot points out in cards: where tension rose, where conflict exploded, main characters facing difficulties…and then she put all the ‘scenes’ on the floor and worked out where would be best to place them structurally, for maximum impact.
Yet another swore by a mood board – just like designers use when designing a room, but instead of swatches of different materials and colours, she had pictures and illustrations of possible characters or scenes, names, words, expressions, ideas, younameit…all up on a big cork board. That worked for her.
I tried it but the board got too cluttered and I didn’t like that. I can work on a (very) untidy desk, but I didn’t like a cluttered WIP board. Go figure. (The words 'therapy' and 'seek' spring to mind.)
Then I read that JK Rowling used Excel for some of her plotting. Ooooh – more procrastination. I checked that out immediately. Didn’t like the way she’d done it, so tried my own version. I’m using it for one story that might turn into a serial, so I need to remember certain things such as minor characters’ traits / descriptions / pertinent world information / specific magical abilities. You could spend weeks playing about with all the software out there – months, if you really put your mind to it. And maps! Inkarnate.com is great fun for keeping track of fantasy territories. That’ll keep you busy, too.
But I still have a Word document called Notes, and my love of pen and paper takes me back to my notebooks. That’s what I keep going back to. So, I guess that’s my preferred Way.
I’m pretty sure Mr Shakespeare didn’t have access to mood boards, index cards or spreadsheets. For him, 'softwear' would probably have been his shirt or hose. Still, he might have had a method to remind himself if he said ‘Out damn spot’ – or was it ‘stain’? – in that Scottish play? Did Titania or Bottom fall asleep, or both of them? And that Hamlet fellow, what was it he wanted to be, again? Maybe Will had his plotting methods and memory aids and pieces of parchment with ink blots and scribbled notes all in wee piles on his desk. Just like us.
Or maybe he just, you know, sat down and wrote. Because that works, too.
Ancora Imparo
MORE METHODS
A stroke forced me to organise my writing so it’s paperless. While pen and paper is fabulous for connecting your right and left side of the brain, if you want to dig into your computer skills, here are a few options:
SCRIVENER
This program is a powerful tool. I love it. Scrivener sounds like it has the same chapter/scene/corkboard and drag and drop functions as Dabble.
In addition, these functions help me organise my writing:
I’ve kept the ‘research’ heading and under it, I have a folder for my query package. Under that folder, I have my query, synopsis (1,2 and 3 page), blurb, comp titles.
I’ve even incorporated a Story Grid foolscap template into this section.
Here, you can:
What happens:
The consequence:
Why it matters:
The realisation:
And so?
I’ve slotted in this part of the Snowflake method so I keep this in mind:
Reaction scene:
Reaction:
Dilemma:
Decision:
I keep the blank template in the 'Project Notes (General)' box.
STORY GRID
Story grids also help organise my books. I keep track of time of day, weather, turning points etc through my big Excel story grid, scene-by-scene. Story grids are a lot of tedious work, but they really help you focus on a snapshot on what is happening within a scene. If you'd like a copy of my blank template, DM me. It's Excel and not supported by Litopia.
VLOGS
This is Scrivener on a MAC (I have Windows and it’s different, but if you search, you’ll find most MAC features):
Story Grid spreadsheet
Rachel Capps (RK Capps)
As before, the discussion thread will be open for FIVE DAYS from when we post the Chat. Let us know your thoughts. If you disagree with anything, that’s fine. Tell us why. We love hearing from you. All opinions are welcome and valid additions to our learning. Keep it civil.
Rachel (RK Capps), Galadriel, Kay (Ancora Imparo)
ORGANISING IDEAS
How do you organise your ideas? What do you do with all those bits of paper you scribble on? Collate them, so you can find them? Think you know where they are, only to lose them? Or forget you had an interesting spark or lead? Perhaps you work diligently and everything is catalogued and filed neatly.
This is not a piece on the ‘right’ way to do it, or even the best way. This is a chance for you to reflect on your own habits. What works for you? Or doesn’t?
How I do it/ Have done it
I’m always open to inspiration, and when snippets of this or that, or good ideas arrive, they don’t always wait until I’m at my desk. I’m not confined to words either. Natural materials found on walks; coloured paper; artwork; cards and music have all provided inspiration. I see two broad categories in how I gather and organise ideas.
My First Way belongs to immediate inspiration, lines I’d penned off the cuff for a poem; a found quotation from another book, facts, new words, and any other minutiae. Nothing is written or kept in one place, mind. I’ll write on the first thing that’s to hand. Sometimes, it’s on my phone. There’s my scrap paper pile; usually this is a print of a draft, and I’ll write on the back or in the margins when anything grabs me.
Yes, I’ll scribble on whatever is in front of me. Last week, I wrote a conversion of pounds to kilograms (nothing to do with writing; I just fancied knowing my weight) on a corner of paper poking out. Turned out, I’d penned on a rather sweet picture one of my kids had drawn when they were little. Maybe, if I kept a tidy desk these things wouldn’t happen. I like the thought of a tidy desk, and thought becomes deed maybe once every couple of months. If my drinks’ coaster is buried under a paper mountain, I know I’ve got too much going on.
Yet, that is my default way of working. I enjoy the messy busyness of my desk. And while I may be procrastinating with a bit of paper shuffling, I do find interesting items that may be of some use – in the near future, if they don’t get filed away again.
I’m in the process of moving house, so my corkboards (including some lovely hexagonal felt and foam ones I bought from Amazon, which I recommend) are empty of newspaper snippets, autumn leaves, a peg doll, etc. However, the bulk of my pica tendency is paper. There is a great fan of it bridging keyboard and monitor. Like compost, it (and the other piles) gets moved from place to place. I’ll slide fragments into diaries, folders or notebooks. Like all good mulch left over time, sifting it yields bounty. Sometimes. Occasionally, the ink has faded out or there’s been a spillage so I’m trying to read blurred, dried-out corrugated paper. Because of the house move, I’ve been chucking out a lot of paper (to be recycled), I’ve come across parts of poems and stories I wrote twenty-odd years ago; leaflets; letters from friends; art cards and newspaper articles; like a magpie, I’ve hoarded any fragment that’s called to me.
Yesterday, I found a small scrap of yellowed, lined paper. I didn’t realise I still had my late mother’s handwritten list of music she said I might enjoy. She passed thirty years ago this year. The first words on this scrap read: Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov 1844-1908, Scheherazade op 35.
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade op.35 - Leif Segerstam - Sinfónica de Galicia - YouTube
Well, it took me back. I’m listening to this music as I type for CC. This note, my grief and that music inspired me many years ago to write the following poem:
BEREAVEMENT
I confuse your need for closeness and company
I let the phone ring and the door open with the flow
of sympathies and flowers and when the sorrow-sharers
arrive, you wish they would all go away.
I diffuse all emotions of grief and despair –
leave you with a smart.
I am the cardigan brought straight from hospital
the one you hide in plastic at the back of the wardrobe.
I am the telephone where you pretend in your new distance
that you wait for the call; listen to my hollow purr in the receiver.
I am the only bouquet that burned in the fire
The little black diary tracking this long path where you write the coda.
I am the empty or half-drunk antibiotics
The little notes of despair left for you to find around the house.
Listen to me in Scheherazade, Doris Day, Annie Lennox
then wipe me away in the tears.
I am the drawn floral curtains, the hush of ward 13.
I am the uninvited faery - the one you call wicked.
This is the curse that cannot be undone.
I am not loud.
I am the empty space that remains.
I am the ash upon the hills you will never return to.
I also found (on an ‘ancient’ mind-map about neo-mysticism!) another scribbled poem: ‘Malcolm Williams, Pipe Song & the opening line is Plant, Spirit, In me your power. It’s a heady little poem, but I can’t find anything on the internet about him. Or the poem. So much so, I’m wondering if I wrote it myself! Let me know, if you’re familiar with either poet or poem. On that note (pun intended) is
The Second Way I organise ideas for novel writing. In this area, I’ve done the inspiration bit, now the work has to be more focused. I’ve approached outlining and similar tasks in lots of different ways over the years. I’ve been unsuccessful with Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat Beat Sheet, but perhaps that’s because it’s a spreadsheet . . .
A paper version works quite well, as most have seen with JK Rowling’s’ demonstration. I think it’s the hand, pen, paper relationship that engages the mind better, pulling me into deep consideration.
I’ve used index cards; great fun for condensing chapters and scenes, if you use as few a words as possible on the cards. However, I found them impossible to lay out on the carpet or table (especially hazardous around grandkids and dogs). I appreciate the method, but I still can’t make them work for me.
Post-it notes. Similar to index cards but do they stay stuck on the wall/window? Do they heckers.
I’ve also done plenty of Vogel’s story and character arcs in notebooks where I try to precis my story under neat headings. Prior to all this, I did ‘pants’ a lot, which has led to an enormous outtakes file on my computer.
Several years ago, I did NaNoWriMo and got a voucher for a new startup called Dabble. I have not tried Scrivener or any other program, so nothing to compare it to. However, I like it. Each scene gets its own page, which are sorted into Chapters. Later, if I want to move a scene or a chapter, there’s a drag and drop option. For me, this makes it very easy to see what I’ve got going on and where. It also has virtual index cards, which can’t get spilled. I can even attach the cards to my document, so I can move elements in novel around from here. Dabble does what I want it to. There’s a heap more to this program, but I’ll leave it to you, should you want to explore it.
Finally, for those instantaneous thoughts and moments, it’s all about pen and a bit of paper. And in these moments, when I’m reading or deciphering my scribblings, I inwardly smile at this particular line of my history that has unfolded over time. On paper or in notebooks, it marks things that were once important or at the forefront of my mind; it shows changes in my handwriting, or how I always wrote woman as ‘womon’ (of the moon) because I was very much a ‘in the body-based feminist,’ and the sorts of doodling I used to enjoy (spirals); poetry topics I wanted to write about; literature I was reading. My churning out of Schemes of Work and creative lessons for teaching; diary entries for needing to pass this or achieve that. All no longer important. Or relevant.
If I put writings from my twenty-year-old self next to notes from my current age of fifty-six, well, I find a poignancy in the essence of that younger, before children, university, career, self, still finding its way into my present life. Perhaps somethings can’t be thrown away or truly forgotten. So, when you’re foraging for inspiration or dancing with your muse, and your ideas contain the essence of you, then find a way to remember where you put them.
Notes and diagrams show how famous authors including J.K. Rowling and Sylvia Plath planned out their novels | Daily Mail Online
10 Writing Tips from J.K. Rowling - YouTube
Galadriel
ALL DESKS ARE WELCOME
Albert Einstein said: ‘If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?’
Untidy desk = untidy mind.
Don’t you believe it.
Do you need to organise your desk/house/room/life/partner/children/colleagues/...writing?
Whatever method you use for organising anything, even your Work(s) In Progress, boils down to one thing: whatever works for you. Some psychologists will tell you clutter and mess can add to stress. Well, probably. But so can putting everything away tidily and then not being able to find a damn thing.
Writing a novel isn’t quite like misplacing those warm socks you were keeping for when it got cold. There’s so much going on in a novel: main characters; sub characters; descriptions; traits; history; main plot; sub plot; backstory reader needs to know; backstory reader doesn’t need to know; vital explanations; solid exposition (I promise you, these will end up in Cuts); conflict booster; where to plant Seeds…
You’ll have your own list. What do you do to organise all those wonderful characters and plots you’re creating, so you don’t forget them? Some writers swear by Scrivener; some use other software. There are lots around. Google ‘Tools for Organising Your Novel’ – and take your pick.
I keep it simple. I have a Word document for typing the story out in. I have another document with copious notes where I chuck anything that occurs to me: a name, a word I like, a tiny idea, a stonking big idea, something I read about quantum physics that sounds like magic...It all goes in Notes. I have headings, too, so I can do a FindFile and find the part I need fairly quickly. I read these Notes over often to keep things fresh in my mind. I love physical notebooks, too, so I start one for ideas on whatever story I’m planning. I have notebooks, large and small, everywhere: bed-side table, desk, chair where I watch TV, bag, and a box full of more beautiful notebooks just waiting their turn.
Then I get on with writing and forget all about the Notes.
I also start a Word file marked Cuts. If I think I can do without a paragraph or two, or a scene or three, but I'm not sure – I cut them anyway, put them in the file marked Cuts and then I don't feel they’re ‘lost’.
Then I get on with writing and forget all about the Cuts.
When I’ve completed a final draft, I copy the file, call it WHATEVER/2 and then start editing/rewriting. I read over the Notes file, and the notebooks, check if I’ve covered the bases: theme, structure, conflict, mystery, fantasy, tropes, whatever I’ve been aiming for.
If I made a 1-30 I check to see if I missed out anything important. A 1-30 is something one of our lecturers at Uni used to use. Traditionally published, he put the hard work into planning his books in 1-30 plot-points (could be 1-30 chapters; that’s up to you). That way, he had a list of what happens when and to whom, so he could see if tension or conflict was rising or falling; if a character was winning or failing and how regularly the ‘rocks’ hit them etc.
He would adjust the 1-30 until he was happy with the structure, degree of conflict, tension, mystery, twists, pace etc and then he’d start writing. Often, he said, he would end up tweaking the 1-30 because the characters had taken control of the story and had run off in a direction he hadn’t foreseen, but liked. That was okay. Adjust and adapt. Because nothing is written in stone. That’s what your Delete button is for. Delete, re-plan, keep writing. (If you can't bear to lose anything, copy the file as WHATEVER/version 3,065 and then start rewriting.)
I tried a 1-30 for one of my books. It was good to see it all progress. I used coloured ink for tension and conflict. Blue where I thought it got boring or too slow. You can do whatever you like.
Another lecturer used a card index. She wrote all her plot points out in cards: where tension rose, where conflict exploded, main characters facing difficulties…and then she put all the ‘scenes’ on the floor and worked out where would be best to place them structurally, for maximum impact.
Yet another swore by a mood board – just like designers use when designing a room, but instead of swatches of different materials and colours, she had pictures and illustrations of possible characters or scenes, names, words, expressions, ideas, younameit…all up on a big cork board. That worked for her.
I tried it but the board got too cluttered and I didn’t like that. I can work on a (very) untidy desk, but I didn’t like a cluttered WIP board. Go figure. (The words 'therapy' and 'seek' spring to mind.)
Then I read that JK Rowling used Excel for some of her plotting. Ooooh – more procrastination. I checked that out immediately. Didn’t like the way she’d done it, so tried my own version. I’m using it for one story that might turn into a serial, so I need to remember certain things such as minor characters’ traits / descriptions / pertinent world information / specific magical abilities. You could spend weeks playing about with all the software out there – months, if you really put your mind to it. And maps! Inkarnate.com is great fun for keeping track of fantasy territories. That’ll keep you busy, too.
But I still have a Word document called Notes, and my love of pen and paper takes me back to my notebooks. That’s what I keep going back to. So, I guess that’s my preferred Way.
I’m pretty sure Mr Shakespeare didn’t have access to mood boards, index cards or spreadsheets. For him, 'softwear' would probably have been his shirt or hose. Still, he might have had a method to remind himself if he said ‘Out damn spot’ – or was it ‘stain’? – in that Scottish play? Did Titania or Bottom fall asleep, or both of them? And that Hamlet fellow, what was it he wanted to be, again? Maybe Will had his plotting methods and memory aids and pieces of parchment with ink blots and scribbled notes all in wee piles on his desk. Just like us.
Or maybe he just, you know, sat down and wrote. Because that works, too.
Ancora Imparo
MORE METHODS
A stroke forced me to organise my writing so it’s paperless. While pen and paper is fabulous for connecting your right and left side of the brain, if you want to dig into your computer skills, here are a few options:
SCRIVENER
This program is a powerful tool. I love it. Scrivener sounds like it has the same chapter/scene/corkboard and drag and drop functions as Dabble.
In addition, these functions help me organise my writing:
- My absolute fav tool - split screen
- Pictures
- Template sheets
I’ve kept the ‘research’ heading and under it, I have a folder for my query package. Under that folder, I have my query, synopsis (1,2 and 3 page), blurb, comp titles.
I’ve even incorporated a Story Grid foolscap template into this section.
- Set the mood
- Inspector
Here, you can:
- take snapshots of work so you can always come back to it (watch Abbey’s first vlog if this interests you).
- Write Synopsis index cards which I can use in conjunction with my corkboard.
- Switch between general notes for the book and specific notes for a scene. With specific notes for a scene, I’ve incorporated one of Lisa Cron’s tools that resonated with me. Every scene, I have filled out this:
What happens:
The consequence:
Why it matters:
The realisation:
And so?
I’ve slotted in this part of the Snowflake method so I keep this in mind:
Reaction scene:
Reaction:
Dilemma:
Decision:
I keep the blank template in the 'Project Notes (General)' box.
STORY GRID
Story grids also help organise my books. I keep track of time of day, weather, turning points etc through my big Excel story grid, scene-by-scene. Story grids are a lot of tedious work, but they really help you focus on a snapshot on what is happening within a scene. If you'd like a copy of my blank template, DM me. It's Excel and not supported by Litopia.
VLOGS
This is Scrivener on a MAC (I have Windows and it’s different, but if you search, you’ll find most MAC features):
Story Grid spreadsheet
Rachel Capps (RK Capps)
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