25 Ways To Plot, Plan and Prep Your Story.
I tend to do it Chapter by Chapter and Scene by Scene, but I have tried a couple of these. As a scriptwriter who has recently been turning a couple of scripts into short stories I can raise some caution about the Script and Dialogue pass methods. One problem with these methods (for me, anyways) is that the dialogue tends to overwhelm the prose, so you can end up with weak prose stringing together strong dialogue if you’re not careful. Then again, if you’re a dialogue-based writer anyways who tends to be minimalist in your prose, those methods might just the thing to get the whole story on paper ASAP.
I thought it was neat to see J.K. Rowling’s spreadsheet approach, and the Index Card approach intrigues me a bit. It’s interesting to see how the commentors point out that if you have a board with all these notes about your book in front of physically at your workstation it forces you to keep focus on that project even when you’re not thinking about it directly. The Collage idea is also interesting, and I have started to do some of that with a current project by tossing pictures I find inspiring into a folder as I do research for it.
A good article, and recommended reading for any writer! You just might learn a way to improve your writing or planning.
Rob
Damn. Math is hard.
Keep that in mind Rob, we’re ENGLISH teachers 😉
Interesting article. A lot of simplistic ways that strike me as more “dah!” than “Bazinga!”
I create Massive Story Bibles for my big projects. They often include Character breakdowns with something simple like their physical appearance, personality, and strengths and dragons, talents, and a totem (animal familiar or the like) that they remind me of.
I also create something I think important for a plot monster like me. I don’t just write little synopsis for Chapter plots but I put a separate row for “Backstory” and “Seeding”. I like putting little plot pieces in that will mature in the future, and let others call back. No they aren’t set in stone, but its amazing how thinking ahead can really create some special moments. Especially if your goal is to have the reader reread your book to look for the breadcrumbs.
For my fantasy realms I always include a Compendium of Beasts, Lore, Items and places of interest,