Plotting my plot

I've decided to spend today finding ways to plot my plot.

I have so many story threads, ideas, action and reaction points, imagery to follow through on, whew the list goes on and on, that I'm finding I can't keep track of it all in my head.

I've known for some time that it would come to this. I started a notebook a few months ago and I've tried to keep as many of my ideas in it as I can. But now I have the initial idea recorded pretty thoroughly and I'm building the plot action/reactions sheets, I'm finding that I can't keep track of all the information I am gathering around the plot points, characters, imagery, theme and the list goes on and on.

The action/reaction section sheet idea I got from Evan Marshal's book have been a life saver, and the real catalyst around my recognition of the need to find a way to track everything I need to remember about the books.

I've started using index cards to note the information I need to keep track of for each scene and today I'm off to try and find a cork board large enough to fit over the windows that cover the wall at the end of my office. I don't really need to worry about blocking the light because I the wall to which my desk is parallel is also covered in glass.

Writing this book is starting to get exciting again. I've been in a bit of a slump since I did the novel in 30 days workbook in June.

While I've kept reading as much as I can about novel writing and writing in general and jotting down notes of the ideas, I've been only doing a cursory amount of work toward my novel, and to be honest it was just for show.

Just enough to keep myself convinced that I was still doing it. It coming up to 10 weeks since I finished the 30 days task and when I realized this, it became embarrassingly obvious that I haven't really made any real progress since then. It's hard to keep yourself fooled forever when you start looking at what you have achieved from a point in time. The facts have revealed that I've been a bit of a slack arse.

I've spent too much time thinking about the story instead of finding ways of getting it down. Hopefully, the index cards and cork board will help me keep track of it all and get me back on the yellow brick road.

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