I have had a flash of inspiration lately. I have found that happens when it comes time to work on promotion. After creating two rough outlines for my next novel, a pre-post apocalypse story, I didn’t like my sequencing. My order of peak moments just didn’t work. The hero's motivations wouldn't work. I was stumped for a few days. Then I remembered something I learned at a writing seminar.
The instructor, author Jaimie Engle, spoke about writing techniques. One of them was writing in scenes. Jaimie said that it doesn’t work for her, but a friend uses it all the time. She writes her scenes on note cards, and then rearranges them until it suits her. I've never been a note card kind of guy. I've been spoiled by the computer. I need my cut and paste when I write.
To that end, I have started a list of scenes, added notes, and in some cases begun filling in the details. So far so good, but I’m still in the early stages. At the very least, I will end up with the high points of my story, which I will piece together. It seems to suit me as I tend to bounce around a lot anyway as the creative juices ebb and flow from one direction to another. Sometimes working on a particular scene, I am inspired to add a character trait. Then off I go to my character bios to add them there. It’s a little ADDish, but it seems to be working. Hmm, I wonder if that means something.
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