Plotter, not pantser
This past week I've been reasonably busy, but I have made a surprising amount of progress on my outline for the follow-up book to Firemark. I know I said I would edit before writing something else, but hear me out. As I've started laying out the puzzle pieces, I find myself looking back and finding issues I need to correct. For everything in book two to work, I need to make sure everything in book one provides an accurate foundation. In part, this explains why I'm a plotter, not a panster.
Laying out the index cards proved problematic after a while…
Having the general idea in front of me gives me a course on which to follow. That rough sketch of what is to come puts me firmly in the plotter category, as opposed to writing by the seat of my pants. Sometimes in the past characters will deviate and not do as their told, and in those cases, I happily follow their lead and see what happens. All of it still occurs within the larger picture I've already thought through. While I know I still have editing work ahead of me, outlining what comes next is proving to be helpful, so let's talk about how I do it.
I've outlined several different ways before. I started with index cards and graduated to sticky notes with scenes I could move around. I then moved on to color coding my sticky notes by which point of view the scene would be told. These worked great, but after a while, I grew tired of rewriting everything in longhand because my OCD wouldn't let me move on without it being perfect. I then moved on to page breaks in a never-ending document. The title of each new page was a scene, meaning I could scroll through the whole thing, scanning to see what was still left blank. As I filled in the chapters, the page breaks moved automatically, preserving a blank space for that scene still waiting to be tackled.
As a side note, being a plotter and using these strategies allows me to write fast. I have all of the scenes already in order, and I can scan and scan through and choose something angry, tender, or suspenseful that matches my mood at that moment. This strategy protects me from a lot of writer's block and wasted time.
This last strategy I used the longest and don't get me wrong it's still a great method. The problems came later. When I had finished writing, I was left with a three hundred page document that I needed to scroll through and adjust chapter by chapter for every single submission to a contest, editor, and agent. Every single time the formatting needed to be slightly modified to meet the requirements and every single time took about an hour.
Enter Scrivener.
I finally broke down and bought Scrivener 3. If you are a NaNoWriMo participant, you can get a discount coupon, and if you are a NaNoWriMo winner, the discount is more. This program is designed for writing long documents to avoid the very issues I mentioned previously. It is built for writing stories and has a ton of amazing features of which I'm just scratching the surface. I'm saving hours by using it, just in formatting alone. See, the thing about it is that Scrivener allows you to build chapters independently and then compile the final document in a variety of ways, including Kindle-ready for ebooks. Gone are the frustrating hours of adjusting margins, tabs, numbers, and titles. Instead, I hit compile and with a few clicks tell Scrivener where and how I want my manuscript to spit out. But, we're talking about outlining here.
I just got around to playing with the corkboard feature on Scrivener. I purchased it halfway through Firemark and as a result, didn't see it's brilliance from beginning to end. There are three ways to view an outline in Scrivener.
Scrivenings: This is blank except for the index cards on the side. If I had text in each chapter, it would be there.
Corkboard: I can put in digital index cards, that simultaneously create new chapters. I can move them around and plot out ideas for each.
Outline: This is great for in progress and revisions. I can assign a label to each section such as "first draft" or "third revision." I also can see word counts and if a part is color-coded. As a bonus, I can even compile an outline and have Scrivener spit it out into an easy to read PDF so I can force it onto, I mean share it with my alpha and beta readers. This format is great for giving someone a quick sketch of what's happening without them having to read the entire story.
Color-coded Corkboard: This is my newest favorite and what I’ve been toying around with lately. Firemark and it's follow up are written in third person, with multiple POV, meaning we're in a lot of people's heads. As if that wasn't enough to follow, Book 2 will have at least three storylines, if not more. I've elected to color-code by storyline, though you could do this by character. Take a look.
As it stands right now, the red is the main couple, and each card is either the hero or the heroine. I can scan and see how their story is progressing in the midst of everyone else's drama. Orange is my second couple. That's right. Not one, but two happily ever afters.
Yellow will be the larger story and threat to the whole community. Of course, in the end, everything will tie up nicely. I hope. I'm not there yet, and right now I have a big mess of stories, though I know where it's going. Ever a creature of habit, I'm looking at a sticky note on my desk telling me how it all ends. If only real life was that easy!
Onward!
Kathryn
