Tag: plotting

Writing Programs? #MFRWauthor

PlottingI really don’t know any writing programs, so I suspect I don’t use them. Or maybe this means writing tips and suggestions? Those I use—on and off.

For instance, I have The Plot Doctor (I think that’s the name but I can’t find it anymore on Google). I tried using it, but it had too many things for me to do before I start writing. I did pick up the character sheet idea, though, and continue to use it. Sometimes.

Another tip I picked from The Plot Doctor is the idea of dividing the book into parts. I loosely (very loosely) break the plot into six parts and determine what will happen at each part. I’d never done that before, and found that the beginning of the story might take up more space than the midpoint. Now I control that better.

I’ve looked into the Snowflake method and a few other plotting ideas, but Snowflake method of plottingnothing works for me except what I use—which is nothing like a plotting program! Sometimes I start a book with only a kernel of an idea, and that’s kind of too little to use in a plotting program.

Kayelle Allen shared a program with members of MFRW last year. It’s really more of an organizational tool, called Archivos. It’s not a plotting tool exactly, but I can see where it would help in plotting. I’m planning to use it for the series I’ll be starting shortly.

What do you use to organize your plots? If you have a program that works for you, I’d love to hear about it!

Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here.

Dee
One Woman Only: The Good Man Series, Book 2 Jonah’s story! Can a simple mechanic rekindle with his high school love? She says no, but Jonah loves a challenge!

Mystic Desire
Only a Good Man Will Do
Naval Maneuvers

Character Profiles #MFRWauthor

I confess that I used to be a complete pantser. I had an image of characters in my head and that was all I needed. But sometimes I found that I as I wrote, I added bits and pieces, traits and hobbies to the characters and then it was hard to keep things straight. I often forgot what color hair my heroine had or whether the hero’s eyes were green or blue. Once I renamed the hero halfway through the book and only caught it in editing (thank heaven). I knew I needed help.

Creating a character is a little like chemistry: a little of this and a little of that, and you have a character that’s memorable (and keeps the same name all the way through the book!). I found a how-to guide that had character sheets in it, and I adopted it to fit what I wanted to know about my characters. Suddenly, I had a form to fill in for height, hair and eye color, hobbies, education, family members, etc. I added elements for conflict and goals, too. I assigned each major character three adjectives and then wrote three things the character might do that represented those adjectives. I found the character sheets helped keep me in line and on target.

Lately, I took two courses with Laurie Schnebly Campbell through Writer University and learned a lot! Laurie’s help was aimed toward plotting through character motivation.

I ended up with much of the same goals/motivation information I had using the guide sheets, but it’s much easier to come up with. I think I will still use the guide sheets to track physical characteristics but use Laurie’s process to find motivation and apply it to plot. By the way, if you’ve never taken a course with Laurie, I found her to be a real pleasure—fun and helpful.

So, am I no longer a pantser? Well, I haven’t gotten to the point of detailed outlining, but I have found a couple of methods that help me hold my stories together better. I hope…

Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here.

Dee
Naval Maneuvers When a woman requires an earth-shattering crush of pleasure to carry her away, she can’t do better than to call on the US Navy. Sorry, Marines!