Time to Re-Sequence the Plot

Now that I've finished 16 chapters, 23,000+ words, and countless gallons of coffee at my favorite coffee shop down the street, it is time to take a look at how the three story lines in Rubbed Out will have to play out among one another to lead to a great climax for the book, and then to break that "playing out" into reasonable chapters to tell the best story possible.

To do this, I decided to go back to my favorite coffee shop, take up two tables instead of my usual one, and use a chapter sequencing tactic that I'd seen before but never tried.  I took a stack of Post-It notes, and used one of the tables I'd claimed to lay out the chapters, one per Post It note, in the sequence that made the most sense for telling the rest of the story.  The advantage of this approach is that you can not only see all the remaining chapters of the story laid out in one visual, but you can move chapters around and re-sequence them simply by rearranging Post It notes.

I found this tactic worked very, very well.  Within two hours, I'd sequenced the remaining chapters in the best order possible to tell the story.  In addition, I'd had a couple of plot ideas occur to me that made the story stronger, and was able to easily drop those into place.  I did wind up rearranging a few of the Post Its from one place to another, and when the chapters were in the final sequence, I numbered them.

The photo to the left shows my work area when I was finished.  The Post Its are laid out in their final order (a different color of ink for each storyline to make it easy to see how all three alternated throughout the book), the bound journal I'm using to write the first draft by hand and make more extensive chapter notes than would fit on one Post It, and the ring binder I'm using to organize everything, including the manuscript so far.

Eventually, I will have a dedicated office in my home where this setup can remain permanently, and not have to be packed up every time I have a writing session.  But until that day, this arrangement works very well.

Real life is going to assert itself here until next Tuesday, which ought to be my next chance to write.  But when I sit down on that morning, I'll know exactly where to start and which chapter to work on.  I think the time I spent today organizing my plot and chapters is going to result in finishing the book much more quickly, and the rewrites shorter.

Have a terrific weekend!  January is ending, which in the Upper Midwest is a cause for joy.  Read something this weekend that is set someplace that has palm trees!  Thanks for reading.  -Jon