Creative Planning for Authors and Poets
Creative planning is the act of mapping out where you are, where you want to go, and how you are going to process today’s challenges.
How I Wrote My Novel Using Index Cards
As a writer, I began as a ‘pantser’. If the term isn’t familiar, its simply (and somewhat hilariously) refers to someone who writes by the seat of her pants. That’s how I do life, that’s how I started writing flash fiction and short stories, and I imagined that’s how I would write a novel. ...
A brief tour of Trello for writers
Author Simon K Jones demonstrates how he uses Trello with his writing projects.
How to Use a Plot Planner
A plot planner enables you to keep the larger picture of your story in full view as you concentrate on writing individual scenes.
Story Shapes: Four Ways To Think About Narrative Architecture
Story has shape. We’re often told it has a two-dimensional shape — a common rise (gentle or swift) of a hill, or a scalene triangle. But I call shenanigans on that. I say utter donkeytr…
4 Steps for Organizing Plot Ideas Into a Novel
I recently finished brainstorming for a new book. I had lists of ideas, pages full of "what ifs," and be...
How to Plot and Outline Without Using a Formula
Writers need help building something beautiful, solid, and original—and that takes a method. The method I suggest has three concepts: Scene, Series, Theme.
Example of a beat sheet
An example of a beat sheet used to outline a screenplay.