I love my plotting board

I was struggling with my romance/erotica book.  I was having difficulty figuring out how to fill in the story with important scenes, as I don’t write a Book in order of events, I write it as I feel enthusiastic about a plot point.  Sometimes I need to know how it ends to fill in the events between that and the mid-point, for example.

Well, I pulled out my handy dandy cork bulletin board and made cards out of construction paper.  Shopping isn’t always easy, so I sometimes make do with what’s on hand.  I used my rotary cutter for sewing and the coloured paper for the cards, and now I had an additional tool.

By assigning each colour to a different type of scene, I was able to better see what kind of scene I was dealing with.  By adding an arrow in the corner of each card that pointed up for positive (happy) scenes or down for negative (detrimental to Main character) scenes.  Now at a glance I can see the general progression of the story and how often I have love scenes verses activity scenes, verses conflict scenes, and so on.

I can glance at my board and know where to add story elements and what kind of element to add, including whether it’s a positive or negative element.  This will enhance my story immensely, as I was beginning to get writer’s doubt, and part of me wanted to chuck it all and begin a different story that I was holding for after this one was done.  No, I just needed to take a different approach and visualize the book better.

This is the story that I recently completely re-ordered, so I had lost track of what goes where.  By using cards and push pins I can easily move story elements as I copy and paste them in the word processor, so the two match.  Now that I’m back on track with it, I’m excited again, and ready to write.  Well, maybe it’ll be mostly brainstorming the missing scenes for now, but that’s still writing.  I can pick one idea and flesh it out later, maybe using another idea somewhere else as well, and so on.

When I reorganize my writing space, this board is going over my desk.  I’ll share more about where I write in another post, as I have some exciting plans for my writing space!

​Now, go find an idea you like and get writing, even if it’s just a drabble or a scene.  It’s all practice, and makes us better writers.