Outlining With Note Cards, Part 2 Seeking Wisdom

OUTLINING WITH NOTE CARDS, PART 2: SEEKING WISDOM Last week I started writing about how I lastly used notice cards to begin to plot out that novel I’ve been meaning to start writing, and I stated: And I would possibly even exit and see if another person has some notice card outlining knowledge to share, too. This week I’ve actually Googled it, and this is what I’ve discovered: In her article for Writer’s Digest, “Create Structure in Your Fiction Using Index Cards,” Rachel Scheller went back to a terrific example from “The Trouble With Tribbles” writer David Gerrold, who mapped out a quite simple technique that I think would work better for short stories (or one-hour TV episodes) than novels, however that is really price looking at. In specific, she quoted Gerrold as having written: Some folks love to do their outlining on a pc, however the actual bodily act of writing scene synopses down on playing cards and shuffling them round on the kitchen table remains to be top-of-the-line methods to get a way of the rhythms of story structure, as a result of it permits you to deal with scenes as units. Though I nonetheless gained’t discount the computer as a software that’s just pretty much as good for this exercise, one of many things I immediately responded to once I began to work with these note playing cards is that sense of constructing something, the tactile high quality of assembling this physical factor that may finally be a story. Author Holly Lisle wrote a terrific publish on the subject: “Notecarding: Plotting Under Pressure.” Here she suggests utilizing observe cards to help in some kind of plot emergency, if you don’t have plenty of time to suffer over the plot of your novel and simply have to get began fast. Referring you again to all of the occasions I’ve advised writing as quick as you possibly can, let’s go ahead and add plotting/outlining to that, too. After all, whenever you begin with the beliefâ€"and also you always shouldâ€"that “no plan survives contact with the ene my,” then your heavily-contemplated define might be simply as subject to vary as a quick-and-furious outline, however the former is actually extra more likely to make your writing process more difficult. After all, if you’ve spent a year serious about the book as a sequence of scenes on this order, it’ll be heaps tougher so that you can take a essential left flip from the define you spent a yr crafting than the identical left flip from an outline you spent per week crafting. Reading on, Numerologist Phil started to fall right into a deep numerological infatuation with Holly Lisle. She breaks down the variety of scenes essential to fill a 100,000 word e-book using formulae and . . . sigh. She pegs a scene at approximately 2000 words so her deliberate one hundred,000-word guide will want 50 scenes. She then divides the scenes between the assorted POV characters . . . one scene, one POVâ€"sure! Then she creates note playing cards which are clean aside from the name of the POV cha racter, which I suppose is a good thought. She’s keeping these scenes, and subsequently the plot of her guide, focused on the characters. It really is always about themâ€"what they do, how they really feel, how they interact with one another and the world, and so on. Good recommendation this. Then she says: With one set of character cards in hand, begin writing down one-sentence scene concepts, one per card. Be somewhat loopy â€" just write down all the fun things that you can think of that would occur to the character you've in hand, maintaining in mind that every one scenes require conflict and alter. I added bold for emphasis on that final bit as a result of that last bit should always be emphasized! Then, like David Gerrold, she suggests you begin putting them in order. Does this work? How about this? Wait . . . this scene completely has to come back after this scene, but then how lengthy after? I really just like the sense of play that this course of evokesâ€"is determined by , actually. We don’t always hear about opportunities to make crafting a top level view enjoyable. Also working in a way that I’ve worked myself, she advises: Once the cards are in order and also you’ve learn via them a couple of times to make sure you have them the way you want them, sit down at the laptop, sort them in utilizing either define or bullet format. Copy and paste them into the underside of your novel document. Now just take a look at each sentence-scene, write the scene that it describes, and delete it when you’re accomplished with it. Read the entire submit! It’s too brief to quote here with out just copying it, so please click on through to John August’s “10 Hints for Index Cards.” Though specific to screenplays, this aligns well with what David Gerrold and Holly Lisle had been saying by way of one scene per card to allow them to be shuffled around. This is the concept that’s really making me rethink my very own cobbled-collectively-on-the-fly “sys tem.” I wish to give this a strive now, and within the worst method. I’ll finish with words of knowledge from John August: “Use the cards or the outline as a map, not a Bible.” â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans Hi, This is principally for those who all the time prefer to do whatever, on the pcâ€" Saw some reactions to that impact in the feedback. How about Literture & Latte’s SCAPPLE? It’s simple, simplistic, and also you don’t want a kitchen table (at all times, offering you no less than have one thing like a desk holding your computer.) Stuff can be dragged and dropped into Scrivener when you occur to make use of that utility as well.