Graphic Organizers (Writerly Thread)

[BlackShanglan]

I've just been brainstorming on the novel, trying to fix the female lead who is a bit weak and mushy. I came up with a good solution to her character and a way to incorporate it, but realized that it would mean adding in a few new scenes. In order to figure out where best to put them, I started making an outline of the existing scenes so that I could figure out where it should go.

At first it was just a list. But not long into it, I realized that I could start grouping scenes together under headers - that there were sets of scenes working toward key ideas, like chapters or like paragraphs in an essay. I made the outline a bit more structured and went with the headers, grouping sets of scenes under each.

And it leapt up at me with beautiful force. I knew that the novel had some structural difficulties with some new scenes I'd added - good in and of themselves, but the transition and connection felt dodgy. And there they were, in the middle of a clump of scenes that had no place under the header where their physical location forced them to be. Everything else in there worked toward the central purpose of the header - those three scenes had nothing to do with it.

This has made many things much more clear. Much as I hate to admit it, I suddenly realize that the same attention to structure and planning one has drilled into one in freshman composition - plan your essay, plan your paragraphs, test that the paragraphs support the theme, test that the details support the paragraph topic, check that you've made coherent transition between paragraphs/ideas - all apply here. It's a bit embarassing, because I know that stuff well and didn't think, until this point, to apply it to the novel. On the other hand, it's liberating because now I know how to fix it.

So - does anyone else use outlines, grouping, or other graphic organizers to handle structure in longer works? What works for you?

(I'm also thanking heaven for my huge whiteboard, which was a great place for working out the problems with the character. Once I had "personality," "background," and "conflicts" up there in rows and was able to start connecting them, the problem with the character leapt out at me. "Responsible" is a grand central character trait in real life, but bloody dull in a novel.)

Shanglan

 

[English Lady]

Honestly? Mostly no. The closest i get is a list, alist of what eactly I want in the story and where, or a very brief outline of the story idea.

I've never done the planning thing even when I should of...

does that get me a spanking?

 

[BlackShanglan]

does that get me a spanking?

Only if you ask nicely.

 

[English Lady]

Only if you ask nicely.

Please?

 

[BlackShanglan]

Please?

*long, slow belting with a beautifully heavy doubled length of silky black rope ensues, and continues long after EL's thighs are welted and glowing*

Let that be a lesson to you.

(Oh all right, it was more of a stropping than a spanking ... Let's see if she complains.)

 

[English Lady]

*long, slow belting with a beautifully heavy doubled length of silky black rope ensues, and continues long after EL's thighs are welted and glowing*

Let that be a lesson to you.

(Oh all right, it was more of a stropping than a spanking ... Let's see if she complains.)

*EL is too busy writhing in pleasure to complain, so you're safe *

 

[neonlyte]

Much of my professional life has developed around the use of flow charts; critical in building projects to have a timely sequencing of activities. I apply the same well used techniques to plan longer works. This is a crude first cut exercise to organise and disperse the plot, the time-line described below is the working tool.

I write character sheets for each main character in the novel and develop time line histories of all the important events in their lives. These are compiled into a mattrix providing instant recognition of where all the characters were in time over the period of the story. The time frame extends beyond the start point of the story to enable incidents effecting the characters behaviour to introduced in an appropriate and timely fashion. The time-line is continually revised through the writing of the novel, it forces me to fit scenes where they belong and not just because it was nice to write. (edit to add) Or discade them as opportunistic/irrelevant.

By the time I've completed this exercise I'm fairly familiar with my characters and their histories. It facilitates the introduction of new characters, as is the wont, by threading them into the time-line, and, as you have discovered, you can refer individual scenes back to the time-line to see if they stick. I had a whole section in my Norwegian tale that had no earthly right to be in the tale other than the characters needed to pause, collect themselves, etc., rather than continue the pursuit. By making them sail to their destination instead of drive, I found them three days and slotted the voyage into the time-line.

Absurd as it may seem - after all this work I still need a 'stick it' note on my screen to remind me of their names; there must be a technical term for this. (I don't mean stupid)

 

[CharleyH]

So - does anyone else use outlines, grouping, or other graphic organizers to handle structure in longer works? What works for you?

Shanglan

First off, congrats.

On short stories, everything builds in my mind, and I like it that way.

On longer stories, I buy a sectioned notebook where I keep notes about key plot, charater, clothes, hair, metaphorical elements - everything. Each time I finish a chapter, I note what must be carried forward. Oh, and I make diagrams, the layout of every place so that I never forget how characters move in a room, or where key things are in the mise en scene. Also, if more than 2 characters in a space, I detail where they are sitting and when they move.

It seems picky, but it keeps me consistant since longer pieces take a longer time, and key things may be lost in the passage of it.

 

[Weird Harold]

Much of my professional life has developed around the use of flow charts... I apply the same well used techniques to plan longer works. This is a crude first cut exercise to organise and disperse the plot, the time-line described below is the working tool.

I think "professional experience" affects many of us in the way we organize our ideas for a long project.

For most of my life, Checklists and Procedures ruled.

When I took up Programming, the Book Program Design with PsuedoCode[/u] influenced me a great deal and freed my from the cumbersome and usually incomprehensible to me practice of flow-charting a program.

When You mentioned using "well ued techniques" I realized I often plan a story the way I design a program -- combining "PseudoCode" and a "Checklist."

The principle of using "pseudocode" is to design the program by stating the purpose and function of each subroutine or function without worrying about the exct syntax reuired to make it work.

I do the same with a story: I "write" each scene as a single sentence or two describing what I'm going to write at that point without worrying about "how I'm going to make it work" or the exact syntax.

Once I've got what amounts to an outline -- which anyone who knows what an "outline" really is would vehemently deny -- I start expanding each "subroutine" definition into a complete scene. Then I start "debugging" the story to test how each scene works with what has already been written and modify it as necessary.

This works well for my linear style of story-telling and I suspect it would work nearly as well if I tried a more complex story with multiple plots and storylines.