Post-Its & Excel Are my Friends

Last night, I started a little bit of plotting. I've had one idea in particular on the brain since Christmastime, nagging me to do something with the concept.

When I get ideas, I don't generally have the opportunity to indulge them very far. I usually get them at work, so I just jot down some key words or a phrase on a post-it note. I'll stick that post-it to my CPU at work where I can let the words sink in a bit, getting into my subconscious while I mindlessly collect my paycheck. From there, I'll add any further blips on my radar to a small notepad and bundle them all together for the ride home. I've probably got 5 little stacks of these sitting around my office at home.

After being a little frustrated by a less-than-stellar episode of Lost, I decided to shake off the news of a recap episode next week. I told my wife I was staying up late to do some writing, then stole her laptop and snuggled into the couch with my post-its.

Despite being initially overwhelmed, I lurched forward by trying to make sense of my various notes. Deciding that the post-it system had served its purpose and was now only a hindrance, I transcribed the data they contained into an excel spreadsheet. This way I could organize characters relationships to one another, give them each an age and a column for a brief description of their personality and powers.

Once I got all of this information and a few plot points from the first nugget of the story into the spreadsheet, I started trying to connect the dots between the events I wanted to happen. I've always been the kind of writer who saw the big picture very clearly, but had trouble moving fluidly from beat to beat. By laying out my events in this way, where I could easily cut and paste them above or below other plot points, I really got something going that worked well for me.

In the end, I didn't write a single paragraph of story, but I feel like I'm building an outline that I can follow later. I never used outlines much in school, but I can definitely see the draw for this purpose. This will help me stay focused, and draw on what I have planned for the future to build up my earlier stories. Transitions are a big hole in my writing that I think this brainstorming technique will work toward filling. And I feel very good about that.

That's all I got for today, but stay tuned for more updates and I try to stay up late some more this week to get some work done.