Friday 20 May 2011

Plot-tastic



In my last post I mentioned my big grand plan, and here it is, slap bang in the middle of my dining room table. It's taken me the best part of today to build it, and just looking at it makes me grin!

I saw the method outlined on the fantabulous Julie Cohen's blog yesterday, and it's turned out to be a really invaluable help. I was getting myself in a right old tangle with everything - muddled up subplots, & characters who were behaving ,well, completely out of character.
Doing it this way has organised the jumbled threads into colour co-ordinated plot lines, and it's helped me to realise that I had some things happening in the wrong places. I swear I had to move those notes around at least five zillion times before I could finally stick them down - and even now they are moveable if necessary.
It's nowhere near as organised as Julie's example, but for a first crack i'm feeling pretty pleased with it and fired up with fresh focus.
Let me at it!




11 comments:

  1. It looks pretty impressive to me. I may give it a go too!

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  2. Ooooooh I love to see a good post-it plan. Pretty pretty!

    So glad it's working for you. It's always so satisfying for me.

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  3. Hi Rachael, thank you. Def give it a go, it's fab. :o)


    Oooh err! Hello Queen Julie of post-it land!!!
    Thanks so much for sharing your advice on this, it's really helped me to sort things out. Did you see the bottom corner of my grand plan? I've scrawled Keep It Simple Stupid. I've done that directly on the paper rather than on a note,' cos it's the only thing on there that is cast in stone!
    (Note to self: Lay off the exclamation marks, stupid. Should write that in indelible ink too.)

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  4. I need that advice too, at the moment. I'm plotting the new book and it's seriously wandering from KISS land.

    Exclamation marks can always be edited out!

    And I love your dining room table. I have much envy because our dining room is my office, and we have nowhere nice to eat.

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  5. I tried this once but just couldn't get it to work for me. But i'm envious of you and Julie cos I love anything that looks so pretty and gorgeous like that!

    Don't worry Joanne, I'm an exclamation queen too but I make sure they are VERY few and far between in my actual books :)

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  6. AND it's so pretty! Happy writing, Jo!

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  7. Love it Jo, it looks fabulous! Well done!

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  8. Thanks Julie. Yeah, I'm planning on a big exclamation mark murder spree when it comes to revising time! <--- See, that would be the first to cop it. Orf with his head.

    That's the trick I think isn't it Rach, let yourself use them to get the manuscript written, and then lop them all out again when polishing.

    I know Lacey, it is pretty isn't it? It feeds my addiction for sparkly pens and pretty stationary perfectly.

    Thanks Scarlet. xx

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  9. I love your new look blog, Jo. And all those lovely coloured notes. I think I'd get hooked on doing that just for the colours!

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  10. Thanks Romy, i've got my summer colours going on!
    The notes are fab, can really recommend it as a way to organise your plot. And it's pretty to look at, which is always nice.

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  11. Pretty and useful! Loooove it!
    I use my blog comments (and Facebook) as dumping ground for my exclamation point obsession. It's like therapy... and helps me avoid them in my manuscripts. Though, I will admit, whenever someone tells me I can't do something, the inner rebel screams: "Oh, yes I can!" heehee

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