Good article, Asher.
On a long series, there’s definitely a need to have some kind of system. Mine is remembering where in the earlier books of my series I wrote something and pulling out the physical book and looking it up. The authors who write in my Amazon Kindle World don’t have that luxury and have to content themselves with my very unwieldy series bible. Usually they just ask me a question instead of looking up the answer.
The problem with aspects of this article is it doesn’t take into account that fiction writers tend to fall into two categories — plotters and pantsters. Plotters figure out what happens in the book before they write it and pantsters work by “the seat of their pants,” figuring out the book as they go. A lesser number are like me, who can do either or who have a process that’s something in between. Plotters are the type who’d be good at utilizing technology or a technical process when writing their books.
Not necessarily being a plotter and also being tech challenged, I tend to stick to the old fashioned way, which works for me. Mostly I keep the plot of the story in my head, even if I don’t know many of the specific scenes.
While writing a few of my books, I taped a big sheet of paper to my sliding glass door, with the names of the characters on top, with diagonal lines separating them. Then I jotted down the scenes in each person’s point of view. I crossed them out once written. It was gratifying to look up and see what I’d accomplished.
Mostly I scribble a line about the next few scenes on a piece of paper. I also have a MS word file with notes — some that are years old — before I actually write the book. I add more notes — snippets of later scenes or other ideas — as I write the book.
I am finding the concept of my next book rather daunting, especially as my deadline begins to loom, so I’m taking the time to more carefully plot this one out. I’ll feel more assured when I mentally have everything in place, including an extensive plot outline.
Debra Holland, NY Times and USA Today bestselling author
