Storyboarded

Just ran across this interview with author Jo Knowles on Debbie Ridpath Ohi’s website. I really like the way she explains her storyboarding technique and I think it’s a good way to go, especially after reverse outlining your manuscript. Even if you aren’t creating a picture book, it’s good to know where your story stands visually. I always feel like if it won’t make for a good scene in a movie, then it might not make for a good scene in a book. I look forward to exercising my stick-figure drawing skills!

Happy Writing (and revising)!

 

 

Here’s the long form if the above link doesn’t work:

http://inkygirl.com/inkygirl-main/2013/2/8/interview-with-jo-knowles-on-writing-process-writer-advice-s.html

I’m a Half Plotter, Half Pantser.

This post by Writer’s Digest came at just the right time for me. I have recently been staring at my computer screen  revising my story and it has been slow going to say the very least. I’m not a very enthusiastic reviser. In fact, I keep finding other things to do with my valuable writing time. Some fun (catching up with the new season of Girls) and some bordering on tragic (cleaning my bathroom).

Just a few weeks ago I was telling my husband that I had the urge to storyboard my manuscript as a way to revise. In college I had studied film and television and we often used storyboards for creating our projects. While I thought it was a decent idea, it also seemed so daunting to storyboard the entire story. I’m not a great artist but even sketching out rough stick figures would take forever.

My husband then sent me an article about reverse outlining, which is outlining after you write your story. Perfect, I thought, except part of me still wanted to storyboard. Well in this article, the author uses storyboarding BUT only uses about 20 squares or enough to cover each chapter. They only put the most pivotal moment of each chapter on the storyboard. Well, duh! I could do that!

Sometimes you just need somebody else’s perspective to help fix your own dilemmas. So, are you a plotter or a pantser? I usual start as a pantser and then plot as I go along.

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/jan-29