19 more days!

Holy moses... 19 more days until NaNo!

I've been so busy shopping planning for my IRE trip that my book outline has been lovingly placed on the back burner. And that doesn't bode well for this plotter. I need to have a better idea of what is going to happen and when so I can add in the proper clues and hints and foreshadowing where needed.

(Sidenote: I just love how I made that sound like I've perfected the art of foreshadowing... HA!)

I mentioned in a previous blog that I was trying to do this year's NaNo with Scrivener. So far, that's been working. Last week, I sat down with index cards to order the scenes I've been flirting with. I listed the scene in one sentence and at the bottom of the card I wrote SETS UP: xyz, where I listed what each scene or information revealed.

I then sat down with the cards and laid them out on my desk in a somewhat logical order. A large part of me wanted to pull up a Word doc and begin the outline process there, but I remembered Scrivener had a feature specifically for the index card process called the Cork Board.

I typed up all the cards I had, using the colored tacks to designate if the cards were points of conflict, scene ideas, or questions to consider, first.

Once I got all my cards entered, I kept making new ones. Adding cards was a breeze and I was soon on a roll. I especially enjoyed having a color (green, I think) specifically for questions that I would need to answer or situations I would need to introduce before the next plot point. And if something needed to move? No problem, I simply dragged the card to its new spot in the story.

Scrivener is pretty easy to use, but I am by no means a pro. I'm still fairly confident that I'm only using about 30% of its power, but each time I use it I become more comfortable. 

Next on the to do list? First, find an ending that I'm happy with (though I know I'll likely change it later). Then I need to do some real character development. I might interview them. I might just fill out questionnaires about them. Or I may mine through Margo's now dark Urbanpsychopomp blog or the ever-informative Wicked & Tricksy blog for past posts on how plot your novel before you write it. Like this one. Margo, FTW!