For my #WordRace today I started a Post-it plan of my novel so far. Because so many people are home and maybe working on a creative project or finding it hard to concentrate, I’ll share my famous* Post-it planning method! #AmWriting #WritingTips (Thread) 1/
*semi-famous
*semi-famous
I do this at all stages of my novel, both drafting & editing, for different purposes. Today I’m at ~70k words in my first draft and I need to plan my ending. I want it to be satisfying & relevant to the rest of my book. But I started writing back in August! I can’t remember. 2/
I don’t want to go back and read the whole thing; I’d start fiddling and editing and changing and that’s not what I need to do right now. What I need is an overview of what happens, the important events & characters & themes, so I can use that knowledge to plan the rest. 3/
(Note: I know generally what will happen already at the end; I usually do before I start. But I need to figure out the details.)
(Another note: This is just the way I do things! Other writers do it really differently. Whatever works is the right way!)
#amwriting #writingtips 4/
(Another note: This is just the way I do things! Other writers do it really differently. Whatever works is the right way!)
#amwriting #writingtips 4/
So I gather my Post-its. In this case, I’m using different colours for different characters. You could also colour code by POV, or time periods, or plot line, or theme, or whatever.
Note: you MUST use @Postit brand because the others all suck and don’t stick.
#writingtips 5/
Note: you MUST use @Postit brand because the others all suck and don’t stick.
#writingtips 5/
(BLUE AND ORANGE are like the pandemic toilet paper of Post-it colours. They are really rare and I hoard them.) #amwriting #writingtips 6/
So what I do, is I skim through manuscript (Skim! Not read! No editing! Editing later!) and I write each story event on one Post-it. A story event=something happens, important conversation, character introduction, change of direction, etc. I write it briefly, like this. 7/
You might have one Post-it per chapter. Or you might have several per chapter. It depends on how many story events happen per chapter. And this plan is for your eyes only, so the notes don’t have to make any sense to anyone else. It’s a tool, not a book. #writingtips 8/
You stick them down, as you go, onto a flat surface. I’m using sheets of A4 but anything will do. Here’s my plan from my last novel which is still stuck to a cupboard door. (Blurred to remove spoilers.) #writingtips 9/
Here’s what I did today. It’s the Post-it plan of the first 133 pages of my novel. The green is the protagonist. The blue is other subplot characters. The pink is a REALLY BIG MAJOR EVENT. The yellow is a section set in the past. #writingtips 10/
(It reads from left to right, top to bottom, like a comic book. This is 3 pages of A4. I’ll need to do 3 or 4 more to get up to 70k words. I drew a line for major section breaks) 11/
Basically what this means is that I have an easy-to-read reference map of what I’ve written without having to reread constantly. It also shows me narrative balance and structure of major turning points. I add little notes to tell me what I need to edit/change. #writingtips 12/
You can do this at any point in your drafting or editing process, for stuff you’ve already written or for stuff you are planning to write! Any questions? I’ll try to RT and answer them at the end of this thread. 13. #writingtips
My dog has been known to get involved
There is absolutely no "right way" to write a novel. Whatever works for you, might not work for other people, and vice versa. Also, every novel, even by the same writer, has a different process. I only ever offer tips because they MIGHT work for you.
By the way, I usually get paid about £150 an hour to teach these tips, so if you have benefitted from this thread, please immediately order one or more books online from your favourite local independent book shop, who will have it delivered to you. Any book, not just mine.
