Post by lauraperkins on Feb 24, 2020 20:29:14 GMT -5
Plotting and Character Boarding – with Post-its or Scrivener – for Plotters, Pantsers, and Anywhere In Between
A brief blurb about me. I’m a freelance editor and have been enjoying my editing and coaching business for the last six years. I facilitate regular workshops at writing conferences on editing, craft, world building, feedback, read and critique groups, and run the sci-fi/ fantasy/ genre track at several conferences. Dark, weird, and quirky are my sweet spots. I’m also an author and write primarily fantasy under the pen name Mercy Hollow. Hanging out with writers and talking about characters and story and all the fascinating worlds our minds conjure makes my day.
I want to start by saying that plotting/arc boards can be helpful whether you are a plotter or a pantser or anywhere in between. It’s a way to put up the bumpers on the story-lane while still letting your imagination and characters run wild within them. It can be used for any aspect of the story – main plot/ subplot(s)/ character arcs/ conflict / stakes / goals/ clues/ story questions and answers. You name it. I once did one with a client plotting out the gestation, birth, and development of different alien species and their impact on the main character. It can be used for anything!
Plotting / character arc boards are great brainstorming tools and good to reference over and over throughout the project. They are flexible. Good to revisit, change, add to, or subtract from. Plus, they are a great motivator to get the brain excited and churning about your amazing story.
Click here to get you post-it and Scrivener board examples PDF (I also included it as an attachment): Examples link
You can use whatever structure works for you. I like the 4 Act structure with turning points (labeled example in the PDF). But it can be modified to what works best for you and your work in progress. You can write as little or as much as you want. I use both poster boards and post-its as well as Scrivener when making boards. One thing I like about Scrivener is that there isn’t a limit of how much you can put on a card. It’s easy to copy and paste from the card right into the scene document if you start suddenly writing whole scenes on a note card (which I’m often guilty of doing). You can see on the sample from my post-it board I filled several post-its in some places for the same scene and stuck them on top of each other. When the ideas are happening let them gush.
With clients or working on my own novels I start with a poster board, multi-colored post-its, and a writing friend or two. After the original brainstorming session, I transfer the info from the post-its into Scrivener using the corkboard cards. When I do this, I often start jotting notes and find myself getting sucked in and writing parts of scenes.
In the brainstorming session you can start by just talking about the story and characters. Letting the ideas and thoughts flow. Having someone that can take down notes is very helpful. We often know the answers to our story problems, but they are hiding in our gray-matter. Verbalizing about your story and characters to someone else can pop the idea balloon and the answers come pouring out. The board can help brainstorm important story points and character moments to drive toward and keep the story’s momentum. Those targets may change during the writing process, but that’s why post-its come off and move, and Scrivener corkboard cards are mega-easy to move around, add, or trash.
Some questions to ask or think about when brainstorming:
Where does the story start? What is the inciting incident/ hook that pulls the main character (or characters) on this story’s journey? (In the Scrivener version I include a folder for random thoughts and other books so the ideas can get written down but not get in the way when they don’t quite fit into this project’s story or character’s journey.)
What is the main character’s goals, motivations, fears?
What is at stake at the start of the story? Does that change over the course of the story?
What is the first major (turning point) change/ realization/ discovery that forces the character’s goals, motivations, stakes, actions to change?
o It could be as brief as ‘Someone betrays her.’ Or as detailed as ‘She discovers her best friend isn’t helping her but working for the other side. So her goal/target changes from the previous target to stopping her friend.’
What is the second major change/ realization/ discovery that forces the character’s goals, motivations, stakes, actions to change?
What is the black moment / all is lost moment? (This can come at different places in the story, but often it happens in the last third of the story. An example of this is when the young girl is killed in the Hunger Games and Katness decides to go from defending herself to hunting down the other contestants.)
How is the character different at the end of the story?
How and where does this story end?
Writing buddies can come up with some great brainstorming and clarifying questions when you talk about your story and characters that spark ideas for you.
There are endless ways to use colors with the boards. In Scrivener you can use colors, status, icons (you can add your own as well), and a bunch of meta-data.
A few ways to use colors in Scrivener or post-its are:
Point of view – when writing my Legions of the Claimed series each book has 6 POVs. Without the colored scene cards it would be crazy-making to keep track. But using the colors lets me know whose POV each scene is in with a glance. It also shows patterns, when a sub-character drops off, when my main character has been off stage for too long, etc. This also works well for romance and two-person points of view, for pacing, and you can add sub-color dots or icons for other aspects if you want.
Types of interactions – In the sample above of my YA Fantasy I’m working on, it’s written in 1st person, therefore using POV cards would make it a blanket of purple. So instead I assigned colors to the main sub-characters, to the main paranormal element, and to the group she is fighting against. It lets me see when characters drop off, when I need an interaction with a main element, and helps spur ideas for who might be a good character for a certain interaction I know she needs to have that will push the story forward. When I entered the information into Scrivener I added icons to the cards for setting. This lets me mix it up and add more unique and story relevant settings and see when I have too many scenes happening in the same place.
Character arcs – colors could denote conflict / stakes / goals / defeats / successes / discoveries / self-evaluation / relationship moments / whatever elements you want to look at or need help with regarding the character.
These boards can be used at multiple points during a project – to brainstorm story ideas before you start to write, midway when that middle starts to drag or pull you off track, or after the draft is written to focus before diving into a rewrite or editing pass. The sticky note possibilities are endless. Which means more trips to the office supply store – candy for writers.
I hope the information and samples were helpful. If you have questions post them below. I would love to hear if you have used boards before, anything you found helpful in using one, or different ways you used them. Also, let me know if you have ideas of how you might use one for a work in progress or need some ideas on how they might fit a project of yours.
Best,
Laura Perkins
www.lauraperkinsediting.com
Aka Mercy Hollow
www.mercyhollow.com
P.S.: I have free editing your own novel handouts on my website (No signup required).
Just click the link above for my editing website and click the handout download button on the home page.
A brief blurb about me. I’m a freelance editor and have been enjoying my editing and coaching business for the last six years. I facilitate regular workshops at writing conferences on editing, craft, world building, feedback, read and critique groups, and run the sci-fi/ fantasy/ genre track at several conferences. Dark, weird, and quirky are my sweet spots. I’m also an author and write primarily fantasy under the pen name Mercy Hollow. Hanging out with writers and talking about characters and story and all the fascinating worlds our minds conjure makes my day.
I want to start by saying that plotting/arc boards can be helpful whether you are a plotter or a pantser or anywhere in between. It’s a way to put up the bumpers on the story-lane while still letting your imagination and characters run wild within them. It can be used for any aspect of the story – main plot/ subplot(s)/ character arcs/ conflict / stakes / goals/ clues/ story questions and answers. You name it. I once did one with a client plotting out the gestation, birth, and development of different alien species and their impact on the main character. It can be used for anything!
Plotting / character arc boards are great brainstorming tools and good to reference over and over throughout the project. They are flexible. Good to revisit, change, add to, or subtract from. Plus, they are a great motivator to get the brain excited and churning about your amazing story.
Click here to get you post-it and Scrivener board examples PDF (I also included it as an attachment): Examples link
You can use whatever structure works for you. I like the 4 Act structure with turning points (labeled example in the PDF). But it can be modified to what works best for you and your work in progress. You can write as little or as much as you want. I use both poster boards and post-its as well as Scrivener when making boards. One thing I like about Scrivener is that there isn’t a limit of how much you can put on a card. It’s easy to copy and paste from the card right into the scene document if you start suddenly writing whole scenes on a note card (which I’m often guilty of doing). You can see on the sample from my post-it board I filled several post-its in some places for the same scene and stuck them on top of each other. When the ideas are happening let them gush.
With clients or working on my own novels I start with a poster board, multi-colored post-its, and a writing friend or two. After the original brainstorming session, I transfer the info from the post-its into Scrivener using the corkboard cards. When I do this, I often start jotting notes and find myself getting sucked in and writing parts of scenes.
In the brainstorming session you can start by just talking about the story and characters. Letting the ideas and thoughts flow. Having someone that can take down notes is very helpful. We often know the answers to our story problems, but they are hiding in our gray-matter. Verbalizing about your story and characters to someone else can pop the idea balloon and the answers come pouring out. The board can help brainstorm important story points and character moments to drive toward and keep the story’s momentum. Those targets may change during the writing process, but that’s why post-its come off and move, and Scrivener corkboard cards are mega-easy to move around, add, or trash.
Some questions to ask or think about when brainstorming:
Where does the story start? What is the inciting incident/ hook that pulls the main character (or characters) on this story’s journey? (In the Scrivener version I include a folder for random thoughts and other books so the ideas can get written down but not get in the way when they don’t quite fit into this project’s story or character’s journey.)
What is the main character’s goals, motivations, fears?
What is at stake at the start of the story? Does that change over the course of the story?
What is the first major (turning point) change/ realization/ discovery that forces the character’s goals, motivations, stakes, actions to change?
o It could be as brief as ‘Someone betrays her.’ Or as detailed as ‘She discovers her best friend isn’t helping her but working for the other side. So her goal/target changes from the previous target to stopping her friend.’
What is the second major change/ realization/ discovery that forces the character’s goals, motivations, stakes, actions to change?
What is the black moment / all is lost moment? (This can come at different places in the story, but often it happens in the last third of the story. An example of this is when the young girl is killed in the Hunger Games and Katness decides to go from defending herself to hunting down the other contestants.)
How is the character different at the end of the story?
How and where does this story end?
Writing buddies can come up with some great brainstorming and clarifying questions when you talk about your story and characters that spark ideas for you.
There are endless ways to use colors with the boards. In Scrivener you can use colors, status, icons (you can add your own as well), and a bunch of meta-data.
A few ways to use colors in Scrivener or post-its are:
Point of view – when writing my Legions of the Claimed series each book has 6 POVs. Without the colored scene cards it would be crazy-making to keep track. But using the colors lets me know whose POV each scene is in with a glance. It also shows patterns, when a sub-character drops off, when my main character has been off stage for too long, etc. This also works well for romance and two-person points of view, for pacing, and you can add sub-color dots or icons for other aspects if you want.
Types of interactions – In the sample above of my YA Fantasy I’m working on, it’s written in 1st person, therefore using POV cards would make it a blanket of purple. So instead I assigned colors to the main sub-characters, to the main paranormal element, and to the group she is fighting against. It lets me see when characters drop off, when I need an interaction with a main element, and helps spur ideas for who might be a good character for a certain interaction I know she needs to have that will push the story forward. When I entered the information into Scrivener I added icons to the cards for setting. This lets me mix it up and add more unique and story relevant settings and see when I have too many scenes happening in the same place.
Character arcs – colors could denote conflict / stakes / goals / defeats / successes / discoveries / self-evaluation / relationship moments / whatever elements you want to look at or need help with regarding the character.
These boards can be used at multiple points during a project – to brainstorm story ideas before you start to write, midway when that middle starts to drag or pull you off track, or after the draft is written to focus before diving into a rewrite or editing pass. The sticky note possibilities are endless. Which means more trips to the office supply store – candy for writers.
I hope the information and samples were helpful. If you have questions post them below. I would love to hear if you have used boards before, anything you found helpful in using one, or different ways you used them. Also, let me know if you have ideas of how you might use one for a work in progress or need some ideas on how they might fit a project of yours.
Best,
Laura Perkins
www.lauraperkinsediting.com
Aka Mercy Hollow
www.mercyhollow.com
P.S.: I have free editing your own novel handouts on my website (No signup required).
Just click the link above for my editing website and click the handout download button on the home page.