Nanowrimo Prep: The Index Card Method
I want to skip ahead of myself here for a minute and say that if you do not have a premise for your story yet, or if the thought of having to write a premise is making you hyperventilate, THAT'S OKAY. Put down the knife and breathe.
Because maybe what you really need to do is do some free-form brainstorming on your story. Get to know it, as it were.
And the best way I know to do that is to use index cards (or Post Its). Here's the whole post on the index card method.
but unless you're familiar with the structure grid already, don't even worry about that, yet. The idea is just to use a pack of index cards and write out all the scenes you know about your story already. Just a simple one-line description, one scene per card. It can be as vague as: "First kiss with love interest." Or - "Watch sunset together." Or - "Hero kills babysitter" or "House eats mailman" or "Heroine slips into alternate dimension". (Hey, Halloween is coming. You all know what I write.).
I guarantee that writing out those scenes will lead to more scenes, and if you want to take a stab at putting them in a relative order, that will lead to even more scenes.
What I am trying to get across here is that you don't have to follow these steps in any particular order. If you can't get to a premise yet, that's really just fine. Do some brainstorming for a while to coax your story out. You can do this on paper or on the computer, but if you haven't used index cards before, just try it. There's something magical about the cards, I swear.
And it's so fast - I have to write two book proposals in the next week and there is no way I would even attempt to do that without index cards. They work.
It's a great day for brainstorming, all this rain in So Cal. Use those negative ions!
- Alex
=====================================================
Screenwriting Tricks for Authors and Writing Love, Screenwriting Tricks for Authors, II, are now available in all e formats and as pdf files. Either book, any format, just $2.99.
- Smashwords (includes pdf and online viewing)
- Kindle
- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amaxon DE (Eur. 2.40)
- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)
- Amazon/Kindle
- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amazon DE
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Previous Nanowrimo Prep posts:
- Do You Know What Your Next Book Is?
- First, You Need an Idea
- Your Best Idea
- What's Your Premise?
Because maybe what you really need to do is do some free-form brainstorming on your story. Get to know it, as it were.
And the best way I know to do that is to use index cards (or Post Its). Here's the whole post on the index card method.
but unless you're familiar with the structure grid already, don't even worry about that, yet. The idea is just to use a pack of index cards and write out all the scenes you know about your story already. Just a simple one-line description, one scene per card. It can be as vague as: "First kiss with love interest." Or - "Watch sunset together." Or - "Hero kills babysitter" or "House eats mailman" or "Heroine slips into alternate dimension". (Hey, Halloween is coming. You all know what I write.).
I guarantee that writing out those scenes will lead to more scenes, and if you want to take a stab at putting them in a relative order, that will lead to even more scenes.
What I am trying to get across here is that you don't have to follow these steps in any particular order. If you can't get to a premise yet, that's really just fine. Do some brainstorming for a while to coax your story out. You can do this on paper or on the computer, but if you haven't used index cards before, just try it. There's something magical about the cards, I swear.
And it's so fast - I have to write two book proposals in the next week and there is no way I would even attempt to do that without index cards. They work.
It's a great day for brainstorming, all this rain in So Cal. Use those negative ions!
- Alex
=====================================================
Screenwriting Tricks for Authors and Writing Love, Screenwriting Tricks for Authors, II, are now available in all e formats and as pdf files. Either book, any format, just $2.99.
- Smashwords (includes pdf and online viewing)- Kindle
- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amaxon DE (Eur. 2.40)
- Smashwords (includes online viewing and pdf file)- Amazon/Kindle
- Barnes & Noble/Nook
- Amazon UK
- Amazon DE
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Previous Nanowrimo Prep posts:
- Do You Know What Your Next Book Is?
- First, You Need an Idea
- Your Best Idea
- What's Your Premise?
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