Plotting

So...I've been plotting recently.
My story has been in my brain long enough that it has got itself all discombobulated. I have too much stuff happening that isn't directly connected at the beginning. I have details I keep forgetting need to be revealed early on so I don't end up with surprises or info dumps.

Since I've finally decided on the time period and my POV characters, its time to get to business. I need to see how I switch back and forth from Lilly and Ramirez and how things work together.

I've been working on 3x5 cards so I can move scenes around and see how they fit. Its been easy to add info and to revise. When I'm finished with a scene the card can go in the done stack. Yes! I've accomplished something, even if it has to be revised a gazillion times.

After and extended session of plot explanation, my lovely sister drew her interpretation in a simple pie-graph. Hopefully this is not the feelings you will come away with when the book is a finished product. ;-)

This is my "story board" I've now had for some time. It's a timeline as well as concise versions of my character sketches. Originally I was going to put post-it-notes down the time line so I could moves stuff around and such, but I decided the 3x5 cards were working better for me. My boards have also proved rather hard to store, but they've been helpful.

This is Emerald.

This is Antony.
He's no longer a character in my story, but I like having him on my story board because he looks cool. ;-)
He wasn't serving my purposes. The only way he really fit into the story is if he died in this cool way... Well, my sister didn't like that. It happens that she'd grown pretty attached to Antony. Death threats ensued.
So I took him out and added another character in who behaves much better.
Antony will have to have a star role in a future story.

Those pics are Ramirez and Edion/Adion.

"The Inevitable"
This is the end of my timeline.

This is Rackbrier.
The picture is actually of a German World War II ace I've had a crush on since I was nine. The Blonde Night of Germany changed my life forever. ;-) This picture is of one of Erich Hartmann's buddies at his wedding.

Yup.
This is my story board.

Thanks for reading,
Miss Pickwickian