Back to the Storyboard...

Well, in case it isn't obvious by now, I'm no longer sticking to my self-imposed rule of only blogging when I've done some work on my book. It wasn't working for me, mostly because when I didn't write, I got frustrated when I felt I couldn't blog (especially during the height of my morning sickness for a few months), and when I didn't blog, I felt guilty that it was due to my not writing. So, though I was well-intentioned in thinking that each would provide incentive for the other, mostly what the whole thing was providing was guilt. So, I've given myself the freedom again to write and blog independently of each other--I think it'll be much more productive for me on both counts.

Today I did something with my writing that I haven't done in a while, and I've never done it with my current manuscript: I put it in storyboard form. Well, what I call a storyboard, anyway (it's far from an illustrative one, considering I can't draw much beyond stick figures). I have a large tri-fold display board that I used to set on an easel at pet adoption events when I was attempting to do pet photography for a while, and while I don't do the photography anymore, I figured I could at least get another use out of the board (the funny thing is, there are still animal photos affixed to the inside folds of the board). With my previous manuscript, I wrote out each chapter on a large Post-It note, then stuck them in numerical order on the board. Using different colored pens, I wrote out what happened (or was going to happen, for the ones I hadn't written yet) in each chapter, using a different color for each plot thread. In this way, I could really see how things arced or when I'd dropped a certain thread for too long, and it made me focus on meeting the goal for one chapter at a time, rather than worry about the entire book as a whole (at least initially). So, today I got as far as writing out the Post-Its for the chapters I've already written, but didn't get to block out the chapters I haven't written yet. I have a general idea of what I want to happen in the next few chapters, but I think it was a daunting task to figure out the rest of the book at the moment. It's okay, though; right now, one step, one chapter or one Post-It at a time is good enough for me. After all, after not writing at all for a few months, maybe it's better for me to try a lap or two rather than attempt to swim the English Channel my first time back in the water.