Storyboarding

[Saucyminx]

Has anyone used this technique for longer stories or novels?

Did it work well for you?

I'm thinking of giving it a try because I'm tackling something other than a short story for a change, and wondered if anyone else had found a storyboard to be useful.

 

[sunandshadow]

I personally find a synopsis much easier to make than a storyboard. I'd only do a storyboard if I was writing a script for a visual story, like a comic, movie, or video game.

 

[johneb87]

Works great for multi-part stories where continuity matters. I do mine in a text file that I keep open and constantly reference while writing.

 

[Neonurotic]

I'm visual so storyboarding works well for me to get a general story down, but I like mind mapping of sorts for outlining finer details of a story.

 

[SecondCircle]

People are different. One person here might tell you that they use outlines, one might say, synopsis, one might say just write from the heart and let it spill onto the page. Screen. Whatever. Point is no two people are exactly the same so it comes down to what you are comfortable with. I say give storyboards a shot, and you'll know if you like organizing your thoughts that way or not. I doesn't hurt to try.

While I don't use them myself, I can tell you that storyboards can be advantageous. Some people have made connections to "scenes" in a movie and "scenes" in a story. For some stories, they can work the very same. Storyboarding can be great for helping you summarize scenes in your head, and help you to see how things will be arranged. How the scene will look, what a character will do, how they'll react to another character and in what setting. Course this all depends on the story, as storyboards are often better suited to more "visual" type stories portrayed in movies, TV, and games. But if there are a lot of settings or a lot of moving parts and characters to your settings (or actions during sex) it could help you in the same way to play the scene out first.

The disadvantages could be many as well. Storyboards may not work to help you visualize particular stories. And storyboards and summaries can't always fill in all the blanks for you.

Its worth a shot anyway. Try it, maybe on another separate piece, and see how it helps or hinders you.

 

[Weird Harold]

Has anyone used this technique for longer stories or novels?

Did it work well for you?

"Storyboarding" brings to mind a visual device for plotting an animated feature. I don't use visual aids for a text project.

What I use for longer stories, and occasionally for shorter works, is an outline. start with just the major headings for major plot points or chapters. Add subheadings to each major heading to expand upon the plot point. add sub-subheadings to each subheading to add details.

Continue to expand upon each major heading and/or subheadings until you've expanded each sub-subheading to a full paragraph or more, and you've got most of your story written.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I do all that in my head. It takes about twenty minutes to get a rough "storyboard" then another day or two to refine it into a visual sequence much like a movie or play.

Then I start to write from the script in my head. For real long stories, I put the script in my head in the computer. An outline if you will, sans dialog, that comes as I write.

During the writing of the story I run the film in my head as I fall asleep, sometimes things come to me as I'm dropping off and I have to get up and type them up. Makes for a lot of disruptive sleep patterns.

Then there are the times that the projector is down for repairs. Blank movie screen. I hate those nights.

 

[SecondCircle]

"Storyboarding" brings to mind a visual device for plotting an animated feature. I don't use visual aids for a text project.

What I use for longer stories, and occasionally for shorter works, is an outline. start with just the major headings for major plot points or chapters. Add subheadings to each major heading to expand upon the plot point. add sub-subheadings to each subheading to add details.

Continue to expand upon each major heading and/or subheadings until you've expanded each sub-subheading to a full paragraph or more, and you've got most of your story written.

It is true that storyboards are better suited for film, TV shows, or other visual entertainment. Its what they were designed for.

But they can work for text as well to help an author visualize a scene. After all, while it is "text" that we are using, do the words not paint a picture in our heads as we read? Not saying storyboards are the best thing to use, but I wouldn't rule them completely out. Its just whatever the author finds best for them.

 

[i_would]

I don't do drawings, but like many others I do start with writing an outline or summary. Very often I have an idea of where to start and end, and roughly how to get there. That's a separate file, I call it my author's notes. And that's for all stories, short or long.

I also keep track of all characters that appear in the story in that notes file. Names, little trivia that need to remain consistent (descriptions of physical appearance, age, relations - as it appears in the story), etc.

And whatever else I think is important for future reference. I use the notes sometimes for a summary of the story as it progresses, or to keep a timeline. A recent story of mine (unpublished) required an accurate timeline, it is set over a period of a few weeks. What happened when, what did he know at that point of time.

Except for the first outline, all the rest I add as the story progresses. Characters start doing things and so, ideas come up, etc.

 

[Saucyminx]

Thanks for your input everyone!

I tend to write by the seat of my pants, (cuts down on hand cramps), but I'm working on something a little more complicated. I have a friend from a writer's group who is a successful author, and editor for a large publishing house, and she uses them for all her novels. She always said she liked to use a storyboard and sticky notes because she could easily rearrange things if needed.

There is a video on storyboarding a story from Mary Carroll Moore if anyone is interested. When she discussed the pop point, I got a fit of the giggles.

I posted the thread because I wondered if anyone on Lit worked that way.
Thanks again for all the helpful suggestions, and I do think I might give it a try.

 

[mikoli5763]

I must be weird

because I don't do a storyboard or an outline or use any of those tools.
I get an idea for a story in my head, let it ruminate until I have a start then sit down and start writing and it seems to just flow onto the screen. If I don't finish in one sitting, the story is running through my head at different times and with the direction my brain sees it going. I reread what I've already written, make changes that have present themselves, and pick up where I left off.
It sounds weird even to me, but that's the way I write.
So the answer to the question is no to storyboarding.

 

[lovecraft68]

I don't even outline so a story board won't do anything for me. I seem to be able to keep track of everything in order in my head even for longer works.

MY 50 chapter SWB series was done with nothing more than a few notes scribbled on a piece of paper one day in work.

I think a outline or story board would mess with me. I do better with free wheeling than any type of advanced organization. I tend to feel "locked in" and it messes with me.

 

[SecondCircle]

because I don't do a storyboard or an outline or use any of those tools.
I get an idea for a story in my head, let it ruminate until I have a start then sit down and start writing and it seems to just flow onto the screen. If I don't finish in one sitting, the story is running through my head at different times and with the direction my brain sees it going. I reread what I've already written, make changes that have present themselves, and pick up where I left off.
It sounds weird even to me, but that's the way I write.
So the answer to the question is no to storyboarding.

You're not weird, I don't use them either, unless it's something particularly complex. Usually I can just transfer it smoothly from brain to hands to keyboard. I do some things afterwards like edits and revisions or whatever to shape it up, maybe reorder or rearrange something that doesn't fit or work, so on so forth etc etc.

Everybody does it differently. I don't think anyone can really be wrong here. Unless your method is plain ole plagiarism. Then, yeah, that's kinda wrong.

 

[sunandshadow]

I get an idea for a story in my head, let it ruminate until I have a start then sit down and start writing and it seems to just flow onto the screen.

If we could do it that way, and it would result in a good story with a working structure and plot, we would, because it would be easier. Those of use who do some kind of prewriting, whether making a synopsis or an outline or a storyboard or notecards or using a writer's aid program, do it because if we don't we either get stuck or write a plotless mess.

 

[SamScribble]

In another life, I used to write film and TV scripts. I had great admiration for the storyboards that the art directors and visualisers produced. But they came after the script and before the shoot. I'm not sure that I would find a storyboard before the script very useful.

 

[sr71plt]

I think that anything formalized is just wheels spinning while you're trying to build up to getting started with the writing. I make notes, but I don't put them in any fancy form.

 

[Saucyminx]

Again thanks to everyone for their input.

sr71plt, I was wondering if you were going to chime in. I know you are a very prolific writer. Do you work on multiple manuscripts simultaneously or one at a time?

When I write, I tend to spew it down on the page, and then go back and clean it up later. I was thinking this might be a useful tool for me, to keep a longer, more complicated story going in the direction I want it to go. I'm usually a short story girl, and haven't tried my hand at a novel in about 5 years.

Anyway, every author has their own process that works for them. Thank you all for sharing some with me. I truly appreciate it.

 

[sr71plt]

Again thanks to everyone for their input.

sr71plt, I was wondering if you were going to chime in. I know you are a very prolific writer. Do you work on multiple manuscripts simultaneously or one at a time?

When I write, I tend to spew it down on the page, and then go back and clean it up later. I was thinking this might be a useful tool for me, to keep a longer, more complicated story going in the direction I want it to go. I'm usually a short story girl, and haven't tried my hand at a novel in about 5 years.

Anyway, every author has their own process that works for them. Thank you all for sharing some with me. I truly appreciate it.

I mostly work one at a time in the drafting but sometimes am working short stories and a novel at the same time. I usually set a draft aside and work on something else before coming back to it to review.

I agree with those who say go with whatever works for you--and you'd need to experiment to decide what works the best.