I have all the scenes mapped out for Five Rings. But before I do the same for Web of Hearts, I think I’ll try writing from the ‘beginning of the book’ to the ‘beginning of the middle’. So basically, from the prologue to…
<recap>
BEGINNING OF THE MIDDLE
~~~This is the point of the story where it stops being introduction and the MC is out in the world.~~~
</recap>
Now I’ve got a bunch of text files that look like this->
And above them is a ‘master list’ file with the proper order of scenes. In it, I put asterisks at the end of all the ’candybar scenes’. They are the targets to write toward so I stay excited about this project through thick and thin. I also put the words “POV change” between scenes where I’m switching POV, so I don’t confuse myself later on.
Laying out my plot scene-by-scene really helped me patch over possible plotholes and helped me remember to include vital information I somehow managed to skip over.
I’ve also found this method makes it easier to merge scenes, or strike scenes altogether—if need be—to help streamline the story. This text file method may seem primitive to people who use software like Scrivener, but it’s working great for me. :P
But before I can do any of that, it’s come down to that dreaded point where I have to finally buckle down and organize my data. I have to go through all my old text files/word documents/etc and paste what I have into each corresponding scene. It has become a terribly large task because I’ve been freewriting random scenes into different files over the past several months (!) and it’s ballooned into one huge project. *takes a moment to weep pathetically*
Once I get all the information saved in the correct files, I’ll start working on canonizing the prologue.
Oh! And I bought my very first bulletin board!
I’m sure I’ll find all sorts of novel-y uses for it. ^_^;
Prev: Now what happens? | Next: Plot creation -part 1-
I absolutely love organizing, so I don’t know what you’re complaining about. :P (yeah, I’m not quite normal) You seem to be pretty damn organized to me, so I think putting everything together may not be as hard as it COULD be. Good luck! :)
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Comment by Latrina — September 21, 2008 @ 12:59 am
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Comment by Steph — September 21, 2008 @ 8:39 am
Nice chair, btw. It looks much more comfy than mine. :P
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Comment by aeronwy — September 21, 2008 @ 4:03 pm
@Steph: It seems like every time you come over here you have a new avatar. WordGirl is cool!
I think we all know that hard work alone doesn’t necessarily mean a breakout hit in the novel writing world. There’s so many other factors! And a certain amount of luck is definitely involved, too.
@aeronwy: LOL I barely ever sit in that chair ever since I got a laptop to lounge around with.
Thanks for cheering me on ^_^ I’m sure everything will turn out great. And if my book sucks (always a possibility), I’ll move on to write another that’ll suck less, etc! Onward!
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Comment by cirellio — September 21, 2008 @ 9:55 pm
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Comment by Steph — September 23, 2008 @ 7:22 am
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Comment by Steph — September 23, 2008 @ 7:23 am