I’ve been working on the structure of Book Two of Elspeth’s Epic Disaster. Trying to balance two main quests, an original quest, and the characterizations and conflicts that link them together on paper was frustrating so I decided to prepare a visual organizational aid–something that would enable me to look at the big picture, while also moving the smaller parts around. I did this for Book One, but I only used a piece of notebook paper. This time I decided to tap my inner elementary-school child.
This is obviously not how I am going to structure the story. But I thought it might be fun to share the creative process. The post it notes represent individual parts to the quests and specific scenes that I’ve already written and/or outlined. Not that this poster doesn’t indicate anything about the length of the next book. Some post it notes will be combined into a single chapter, others will take 2-3 chapters to depict. For comparison, when I did this for Book I, the entire book was written out on eleven post-it notes. However, one post-it note just said “Onspeth” and that alone took ten chapters. None of these post-it notes will take that many chapters to develop, I promise. I expect that the next book will be about the same length if not shorter than Book I. I had hoped to start posting new content last week, but I got distracted by a sick child and some other projects (household and creative). I should have the Prologue to Book Two and something for one of my Other Tales posted this week.
Color code: Main quest (orange), College of Winterhold quest (pink), original quest (yellow), everyday life in Skyrim/character development/conflict (blue), and death (purple).
Skyrim: The Rise of House Sigeweald 
It’s always neat to see someone else’s process. Looking forward to the start of book 2.
And I let my toddler stick some of the notes on, which counts as paper crafting–in my house anyway.
Seems like a very good orginizational process. I tend to use Ywriter{ http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html } to help me get organized and such. So three post its with death…makes me wonder who is gonna die?
“makes me wonder who is gonna die?”
I can’t even jokingly answer this question without giving something away.
Hehe, I didn’t say you had to answer it; I was just pondering the post its.
This looks so organized and pretty, whenever I try and write my drafts, they’re always written in my weird too-lazy-to-type-properly style.
“and then lily goez all “dOOOOD U OK””
welp LOL
Typing and writing wasn’t getting me anywhere. I needed something visual and colorful and interesting to look at.
I tend to get bogged down a lot if I don’t plan effectively before typing away but, on the flip side, if I plan too much my creativity seems to be stifled. I love your method though, nice and simple. Looks fun too! I’ve been hella busy recently so I’m still languishing behind on chapter fifteen of book I but I am determined to finish it before book II comes out, you mark my words! Good luck.
“if I plan too much my creativity seems to be stifled”
The nice thing about this system is that it allows me to see the big picture and really track the chronology of the story but at the same time I can focus in on something if I need to–just by taking the post-it and making notes on it. I love being able to move scenes around physically. It’s good to see you around here again!
It’s good to be back!