Let’s Talk Process #1: The Bulletin Board
Pantser or planner is one of the first things one asks when one meets a fellow author. It’s the writer equivalent of sniffing a new pack member’s ass.
Fun to say, fun to argue about, fun to declaim and orate upon. Sometimes loudly and for an extended period of time.
I used to be a pantser. I was an avowed pantser.
Now, I’m not.
What, a girl can’t change her mind?
Fine, fine. I still have a few of my old spots. And a pair of pants so worn out you can see through them. I pants first drafts. I write them without thinking, without editing, without giving a crap if people’s names change, if things go into a pocket and come out of an alcove, or if someone bitched about craving a milkshake and sucked down a diet-cherry-vanilla-and crack pop without ice.
Can’t do that forever though. End up writing yourself in circles until you’re drinking coffee and eating bowls of pasta the size of your head and forgetting to shower and crying all the time …
*ahem*
Eventually, you have to figure out where you’re starting, where you’re ending, what’s going to happen in between, and what possible way there is to make your word vomit conform to some sort of… something that makes some sort of sense.
I am partial to index cards and bulletin boards.
Cheap. Neatly quadrilateral. Allows one to mix media by subject, by context. Allow for quick recall: hair and eye color/snark level/attitude issues/voice timbre/relationships at a quick glance. Simple to rearrange.
Granted, if you’re working on more than one project, your office/writing space will end up looking like a serial killer lair, but hey, at least we’re all in it together.
There is a portability issue, of course, in addition to the author’s absolute terror of lack of redundancy. Easily solved in this fantastically technological age: take a picture. Upload it to Dropbox. Email it to yourself and keep a copy on your phone. Wherever you go, there you shall have your board (s).
Are there apps and computer programs that do the same thing? No doubt. But I refuse to take time away from writing to learn to use them. Laziness? Perhaps a bit. But my brain only has so much space. Besides, I love the feel of paper and index cards, of that pop when the pin pops into the cork. I love having ink on my fingers and up my arms; the more ink, the more productive I feel.
Thus, I recommend the bulletin board/index card method. Give it a shot and tell me what you think. Let us know how you get organized. The comments function is for comments, after all.
(posted by Shiri. Then edited by Shiri to explain it was posted by Shiri.)
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