Well more thoughts on me and plot. I was going through more old notes I had made about plot. Have you ever read something you have written, something you said you were going to do, and then reread it some time later and have absolutely NO IDEA what you were talking about? Sheesh.
Here’s what I mean. I found this bit I had written as I was contemplating going back to work on my flying book. (Hmmm – I’ve also noted that I seem to write more about NOT writing than writing about writing.)
What am I going to do then? I will start with index cards, all one color, and put a sentence about every single scene in the book on its own card. I’ll put a code in the upper corner or maybe a small colored sticker that says either IC, EC1, EC2 for internal and external conflicts.
Then I will take a new color of cards and start jotting down as many possible scene ideas as I can that will show one of those pieces of conflict (one scene per card). I’m not going to judge the validity of the scenes at that time, but just generate the ideas. I’ll label them as well regarding conflicts. I’ll probably lay the whole book out on the floor so I
can try to feed in the ideas for new scenes throughout the book and look for more holes that need feeding.
And then I’ll write.
Where did I get that stuff? I must have just read some writing book that proposed it as a way of figuring out your plot holes. I do know I haven’t done it yet because said flying book is still sitting in multiple boxes in my office waiting for attention. I’ve never worked like that before but so far, for this book, nothing else has worked yet so it is worth a try.
Wow. That’s a pretty complex approach to plotting and plugging holes. I got a little anxious just reading it but as you said, it’s worth a try since nothing else has worked for this book thus far.
Keep us posted on how it goes, okay?
It made my head hurt to read it.
I have no idea where I got it from – it’s too analytical for me to have come up with on my own which probably doesn’t bode well for its success. Sigh.
I don’t know. As you said, it might be what gives you success on this book. Or at least get you moving in the right direction.
I just finished reading Hugging the Rock at lunch. Beautiful. Now it is making its way back to the library shelf so an actual kid can check it out, instead of being hogged by a grown-up. 🙂
Oh thank you for sharing that with me. I’m feeling so unwriterly lately that hearing that really helps.
Glad to be encouraging. Keep writing! As a child of a bipolar (ex-)stepfather I found this book to be especially touching. You were spot-on. My mother used to tell me “manic depression is a very selfish disease.” It took me years to understand what she meant.
It certainly sounds like it could work, and very much like the process someone else has described, although I don’t recall the specific letter codes before — that might be your own twist.
Happy writing, Susan!
I just had this happen, where I had written 3 chapters and a synopsis and left them for a while. I went back and read the synopsis and I’m ….what? how did I plan to do that?
Janet
I love this kind of thing. Colors, charts, piles! I just bought a pack for 500 index cards, 100 in each of 5 colors, for my various drafts of my now-long poetry project. In fact, I took a pic a few weeks ago of my index cards spread out all over my bed, as I was trying to get the poems in some kind of order!
This might work well for you just *because* it’s a totally new way to approach it for you. Maybe it’ll spark some new thoughts and ideas. Good luck!
Laura