around the house I have tiny scraps of paper, notebooks and print outs. Around the web I have left a trail of saved documents, drafts, apps and emails. And now I realise my book is just too big for my brain! How does everyone keep track? I have come to the conclusion I need some kind of visual that maps out each story point, motives, decisions, but how is this done? does anyone use similar method or having the same issue? Is a timeline or graph going to work, or a flow diagram which offers different responses depending on your answer like a call centre might use? Is this visual a giant ceiling to floor poster or a million yellow post it notes? Can I use anymore question marks and get away with it???
I've run into this problem as well. Part of me wants images and part of me wants words to describe/visualize events with arrows and connecting lines, etc. etc. At one point, while writing my last novel, I had one entire wall in our living room covered in index cards of various colours and that story wasn't even very complicated. My WIP (if it can be called that considering its been on the back burner for months now) is that complicated and was getting on top of me... which is why its languishing in the wings ATM. I don't have a definitive solution yet—unless it lies in story-boarding which I haven't yet managed to bring myself to do—but thought it might help in some small way to know that you're not alone. I think I'm going to need a bigger apartment, though.
I almost stopped myself from replying to this thread because even just talking about the planning is overwhelming enough, let alone the planning itself! The process of corralling one's book into an approachable collection of thoughts is, I gather, a universal woe in the writing realm. Here are a few (painfully dredged-up) words of advice, inspired by when I was navel-deep in planning about six months ago: 1. Identify your learning style. 2. Identify how you would proceed to map out your story according to your learning style. If you are a visual and/or kinaesthetic learner, you might consider the use of post-its, a whiteboard, a pin board, long sheets of paper tacked to the wall, and lots and lots of coloured pens/textas. If you are an analytical/word-oriented learner, think how you might use dot points and lists. Audio? Discussion and verbal brainstorming with a trusted friend. 3. Pull together every single note, notebook, paper scrap, digital file, etc into one place. Print out the digital files if that helps, to have everything tactile on your desk. Just get everything together in one place so you can begin to organise it. 4. Re-record the scraps you have before you into your new system. Do you have assorted information, ideas, names, dates, amongst that pile of creative debris on your desk? Lay them out before you and then diligently transcribe them across to your new system. Then throw those m*****rf**kers in the bin. Get rid of the chaos. 5. Once all of the info you've had floating around everywhere is all compiled into one cohesive system, proceed from there to fill in gaps, elaborate, etc. My process was very tactile and visual. Colour-coded post-it notes in a chronological line across my wall (different colours to denote historical context; character arc; plot; red herrings and plot twists, etc). My entire bedroom floor was covered in cue cards at one point. I had an A3 sketch pad full of post-it notes and bold black texta marks spinning from end to end of the pages, joining impossible dots and making sense of the convoluted maze in my head. And in the long run, I compiled everything in an A4 arch binder, divided with tab dividers according to "spare paper," "brainstorming," "character development," "historical context", etc. The a3 sketch pad was dismembered and its pages inserted into foldable a3 plastic envelopes so that they fit within the a4 folder but can be unfolded at any point for reference. This folder is where I keep my spare paper for writing (I tend to write most of my first draft by hand), printouts of my character interviews are held in plastic pockets, blank a4 paper for small scale plotting and brainstorming when I don't need to pull out the big a3 guns. And so on. Now all of my planning and ideas (just for the one novel) are safely assigned one place, in order, portable, accessible and organised. This works for me. It might not for you. No matter how you choose to do it, the best thing you can do for yourself is consolidate and keep everything within the one system. Don't be afraid of the size of it. Have fun!
I bought a roll of lining paper (cheap, plain wallpaper). I tacked up a pretty big section on the wall. I wrote every location in sequence on the sheet, with plenty of room around each one for writing. Then, in pencil, whenever I think of something, I write it based around the location it pertains to. I have blank sections in each of the four corners for more general stuff that can be written down. As you refine the ideas, you can erase stuff, move it around. It's a big diagram that you can use to keep track of everything.
