I’m in the middle of plotting two books right now so I thought I’d give you a glimpse of the process. The first is Maggie’s story, Whyr Desires 5. The second will be a short story, right now it’s labeled Witch’s Destiny 2.5, but I don’t think I’ll formally call it 2.5 since it won’t be a menage, but it will be linked to the series somehow. In addition to finishing up the revisions on Stone Passions II. Here’s a glimpse of what I do when I plot.
The first step in the process is the legal pad for brainstorming. This one has some ideas for possible characters and possible ways to get the characters into trouble. Not sure how I’m going to go. My mind tends to be a little more free when I’m working on pen and paper.
I brainstorm ideas. It’s easier if I have specific characters in mind, but I don’t have that with 2.5. I know more about the story than I do the male character. He’s been aggravatingly silent. After I pick that, I’ll work on the romance and action.
Next comes the notecards. I like using notecards because I can move them around. Yes, there are programs where I could do this part, but I plot better offline and occasionally more points will be added if there’s a gap or something needed in the plot.
I use different colors sometimes for different viewpoint characters or for different parts of the plot.
Next comes solidifying the plot and sometimes expanding beyond the little notecards and post its I have them on at this point.
Most of the time, I’ll write it in a notebook before I put it on the computer as a last check of the flow of the plot. Now this doesn’t mean that the characters won’t throw me a curve ball sometime during the writing process. That still happens, but it also usually means that I’ve gotten the characters right. I love that.
Update:
I’m trying to finish up the last of the revisions on Stone and Fire II so that I can send that in. As mentioned earlier, working on the two plots. I’m also working on the two WIP I’ve already started. One’s a sci-fi and the other is the third Stone and Fire story, not the Cim’s story by the way. I want to finish one of those before I start working on Maggie’s story.
