Post-Its in NYC
I forgot to take a picture of the post-its on the cupboards again in NYC, but I did take notes and I turned them into a Curio board so that we’d have what we worked out. Then I copied the board and took out all the notes after Act One so you could see what we did without spoilers (you’ll see all of Act One, so no point in worrying about spoilers there). So here it is, in thumbnail form, click on the little image and get the big one. It took us one long night to work this out, and we did most of Act Four, too, except we didn’t put up any post-its so I forgot. I’m sure somebody will remember.
All of this is subject to change of course. Several times. But we’re feeling much more secure these days, knowing we have an Act Two and an Act Four.
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Four days really would be a power orgy. Sigh.
Why are some of the boxes shaped like little clouds?
The ones with clouds are scene where the three women are together.
I have a question about the mechanics of story planning.
This seems awfully close to an outline. Did you always plan your stories like this, or has this evolved? Or is this just normal procedure for you, because you’ve written a lot of stuff, and now it’s time to whip it into a structure?
I’m really interested in Curio Board, too, now. I will have to google it to find out more. It looks like it would make a great dayplanner, as well as a story-board maker.
Hope there’s plenty of Kool Aid to keep their stamina up during the power orgy.
Curio is a great program, but it’s a lot more than just the board; it’s brainstorming and project management software, and it’s also the way I do my computer collages. It’s at http://www.zengobi.com/products/curio/
I don’t outline my books ahead of time, but I do outline them after the first draft using a four act structure. However, when you collaborate, you have to know what everybody is doing. So we start by writing introductory scenes so we can meet each other’s characters, then we talk in the Sunday chats about what they’re doing and why, and pretty soon we work out the five main points: where the story starts, the three turning points, and the climax. Right now we have the first act almost written, we know the three turning points, and we have a rough (very rough) draft of the climax. That means we know that the women’s stories will all turn on the same turning point. We also look at patterns, like the rescue scenes that will happen in Acts Three and Four. And on this project, we’re giving titles not just to the acts but to the scene sequences so we know the underlying direction of each scene.
But we can change anything. If one of us has to go in a different direction, we’ll brainstorm so she can do that without pulling the rest of the story out of shape. We’re pretty much about trying to make everything work together without stifling anybody’s story.
Yes, that is really hard.
(-: Thanks, Jenny. It sounds really tough — the metaphor on your blog with Bob last year about moving the landing lights comes to mind. But when the three of you land that sucker, I imagine it’ll be quite a rush (-:.
Will check out Curio now. Thanks again!
Excellent - I love this. It looks far better than an Excel spread sheet - somewhere between a mind map and a scene list with scope for flexibility. And a lot better than cards pinned on a piece of cork board from the local DIY store [looking at one right now] LOL ‘Only good times ahead’
I was hoping to see some “beats” in this. I’m still lost on what beats are, since my beats are musical and must be in a strict rhythm. Maybe your beats would be something like burger dots on a presentation?
You’ve explained it, but it didn’t sink in.
Beats are within a scene, GP. This is a scene list. There are some sets of three in the scene sequences, but there aren’t any beats in an outline.
I’ll be posting some scene revisions shortly. I’ll try to remember to add a beat analysis in the comments.
I think it’s Rober McKee who does a kind of beat analysis. He uses Casa Blanca, but I guess the same idea could apply to prose.
However, having Dr. J give out with a beat analysis of specific prose would be a lot more helpful, more specific. More modern.
Uay! Killer Beat Analysis by Dr. J!!
*drool*
I have had nothing but trouble with Curio since the version 4 came out. No support, either. It’s a great program, I guess, but. . .
Hey, I stand corrected!
Curio is working, I got an email right back from Zenobia, all is well, continue to march, hoo-ah!
Their customer support is usually stellar. Good to know they’re still on the ball there.
I think it’s interesting that you’ve started to go to day of the week breaks with the acts under those headings. I remember it was a bit of a struggle before you found it in Agnes and was wondering if you actively chart/post/write this way now.
Nope, we just did that to see the flow of time. Acts show you the narrative flow, but days are real time.