Working hard on my Camp NaNo story I decided that this time around I needed more than just a rough sketch of my story. Having a planet hopping, ship captain for a main character means that my locations and cultures are always changing. That means I need to know a lot more than just what I am adding to my story and I need a way to keep all the information straight. Having come to this realization I started furiously writing on my post-it notes. Trying to figure out what I need to add, what I already know, and different area’s of my story. This is what I have come up with so far:
With this in mind I also set to work finding a place to keep little storyline notes online. I like to keep as much about my story online as I can, that way I can always have access to my writing on the go. The search led me to Trello I am really excited to start trying that out as well. Having the hard copy up on my wall is great, but I can’t carry that in my pocket.
Each section is color coded so I know at a quick glance what it is. The purple is questions raised from what I have already, the Orange is things I know so far, the Yellow are places, the Light Pink are my characters and the Dark Pink is my Plot Points. Next I am going to get all my scenes figured in and then figure out what plot points they go with, and make a timeline so I know when things are happening! I am pretty excited to see where this leads, as I think it will really help flesh out my story more and make it possible to wrap up all my loose ends. Wouldn’t want to leave anything unknown…
How about you? What do you do to keep track of your story? The places and people in it, and the plot points and how they will pan out?
Random Acts of Writing 