Idea Tracking

[image error]Thanks to cyberspace technology, I’m not really here, but you get to read this post anyway. Today, I’ll have dealt with my alarm clock going of at 3 AM to make it to the airport for a 6 AM flight. I’ll be winging my way to Greensboro, NC for the Writers Police Academy. It’ll be my second trip to this fantastic conference aimed at anyone writing books that touch upon any aspects of law enforcement, firefighters, EMTs and first responders in general. One of my ‘perks’ is that I won a slot on the jail tour, which I’ll be doing tonight. And yes, I’ll be doing my usual post-conference recaps in upcoming blogs.

But as I write this, it’s really Monday, and I’m still involved in edits for my new book, which are due to my editor next week, so this is a short post.

On Tuesday, I blogged at The Blood-Red Pencil about making editors happy by turning in the cleanest possible manuscript. I’d like to expand a little on that post.

Plotting is not my thing. Tracking is how I operate. But I also have my “Idea Board” where I slap up sticky notes as potential scenes, conflicts, or clues and red herrings occur to me. These can be very simple notes to myself, such as, “Who is Fred’s daughter?” or “Find Bones.” I don’t have these all at the start of the book by any means. I may start with the idea as basic as “something bad has to happen” and as the story unfolds, I zero in on what happened, and to whom. In a romance, the basic ideas would include things like “First Kiss” or, “Happily Ever After” since they’re givens. I know I’ll need them, but not how they’ll play out. Yes, it’s unlikely I’d forget these, but you get the idea.

Here’s an example of what my Idea Board looks like:

[image error]Thus, as I’m wrapping up the book, I want to look at my board to make sure there’s nothing important left. Normally, I’ll remove the sticky note once it’s addressed (or put it on the back side of the board). I saved some of them so I could illustrate what I do, and also, so you can see how sketchy these notes are.

Yes, this is a low-tech method. I’ve had people tell me about programs that will do this on my computer. But when I’m working, I want to see things without having to stop and open up a new program. Or, I might want to sit somewhere away from the computer and brainstorm. This light foam core board is easy to move around—and it works if the power goes out. It’s also easy to move thing around, and there’s no accidental hitting of the “delete” key.

Come back tomorrow for some fantastic photos of things with wings.