Plotting your story little by little

Plotting.

Ok, say you have your main character(s) fall into a trap by a witch. You know that you're going to have that happen sometime in the story, but you don't know when, and you focus on that a lot so you can do it at the perfect time. Well, don't. You can do this either on note cards or you can do it on the computer, whichever you prefer.

Ok, say you choose the note cards. At the top, you would want to put the main thing that happened. Example:

Trapped

-walking through a dense forest, lost

-a beuatiful young lady says she can help

-followed her deeper into the forest

You would want to put more key points under the main point, but since that isn't what my story is about, I decided not to do more, so I wouldn't confuse myself.

After you make that first note card, you may want to lable it. "1" because it will come first in your book, or "23" because that will be the twenty-third thing that will happen. It all depends on how you want your book to be built.

If you decide to do it on the computer, I advise to use Microsoft Office Word. It helps a lot when you're typing. If you can't use that, then anything that you can type on, and save it, will work. Anyways, you will do the same thing that you would do for the note card, but instead, you wouldn't have to number it, and you will have to do it in the exact order, unless you can move it around easily on the screen. Otherwise, if you're following along with what you wrote in order on the screen, and you don't have it in the order you would like, it could seriously confuse you.

Comments

KL	Posted 10 Years Ago I'm also a set of the pants writer. I just start the story and see where it goes. After I've gotten into it a bit I usually have at least a general idea of the plot in my mind as I go. I rarely write anything down as far as note. I know I should.

johnsonblake

Posted 11 Years Ago Being a student in the field of applied arts we at our university are taught with all different techniques and methods through which we can deal with all literary aspects and dynamics in an effective manner

Sara Boepple

Posted 11 Years Ago I like the Scrivener program (literatureandlatte.com) which lets you click-and-drag sections of your story if you need to re-sequence, and even has a little "corkboard" view that is like virtual notecards/postit notes.

BuffyWillowDawnAngelGil..

Posted 11 Years Ago Note cards do work, but I prefer to just write and allow the creativity to flow. I do suggest writing a 300-500 word summary of your book naming main events and the idea of the story so you don't lose focus.

cheriesamba

Posted 11 Years Ago This is a lot of help

Wesley D. Stein

Posted 12 Years Ago great tip, thanks

etxcp

Posted 12 Years Ago kk

Alice_In_WhateverLand

Posted 14 Years Ago thank you so much for your ideas and help :) i was just wondering, do you have any tips for writing a Synopsis??