Story Boarding: A Map of Your Novel

Okay. First post! Well... Excluding the post where I talk about myself and how cool I think I am. Anyway, this post will be about the magical concept of story boarding. I do this for a lot of my novels. It helps me figure out where I'd like to go and gives me a skeleton to possibly rehash later in a rewrite.

Before I begin, I'd like to express to those reading that this is not mandatory to start your novel. You can free write it and figure out where to go from there--more power to you if you write this way. Also, if you plot out your novel this way, it does not have to be set in stone--if one of your characters decides they're pretty damn important or this sub plot grows in importance, go with it. 

Now let's begin shall we?

First, I get a basic idea of what I want my novel to be. My method is similar to the Snowflake Method in how it starts but after that I take my own deviation--what this post is actually about: story boarding. This is the basic summary found inside the book with all the technical and legal jargon. It should be short, simple and vague. I'll use Cerulean's because it's the most recent novel I've worked on:

A mystic must gather the remaining elemental warriors to stop a death god. 

This will be used later to figure out the full synopsis--what's found on the inside flap of a hard cover's dust jacket or on the back cover of the paperback--so save it for later.

Next get out your note cards--or whatever you plan on writing the plot of your novel on. I normally cut up my cards into two by three inch (about five by seven and a half centimeter) rectangles. One four by six note card will make about four.

There are two reasons why I have them so small. First, I have really big hand writing and it helps me to write smaller. The smaller I write the events on the cards, the more I can fit onto the card. Second, I have a pretty big bulletin board. The smaller the card, the more of the story I can put onto the board and the easier it is for me to transport it.

Now that you've got a few cards. Let's start! The first two cards I fill out are the beginning of the novel and the end. Why? It's simple really: where the novel will start and where you want it to end. This way, you know a head of time where the novel will finish. For the sake of consistency, I'll use Cerulean again (note: for anti-spoiler, I've removed names):

Card One:
- Villain attacks monastery
- Valerio and Monks escape
- Villain captures Xue/Shalin

Card 'End:'
- X resumes rule, marries Y
- Z and A recreate monastery
- B and C start new order
- D --> New King's guard

Like the summary above, this should be short and simple. I write names just to help me know who's the major player(s). And, if I don't have names for a certain character, I use a key word. For example, Rom, the villain, didn't have a set in stone name until after I started writing the first draft of the Guardian Heir (where he was originally named 'Gernask' before changing to Rom about two or three chapters into Cerulean) and I referred to him as villain in the first few cards--also I didn't have the story completely plotted out before I started writing.

From there, stick to the important things. BIG plot items: introducing a new character, deaths, battles, travels, twists, etc. Keep it big and keep it vague. Hold onto the little, more precise stuff for when you're writing. If you want something to happen a certain way and it isn't big, write it down elsewhere and save it for later. Maybe you'll have inspiration in another direction and your original plan will change.

For example: Two of my major characters have been wrongfully sent to prison and they need to be broken out of said prison. I had something really big planned--and plotted on the cards--as to how they would get out that would involve a few characters and introduce a major player from the original draft. Sadly, that plan I had never ended up happening. I spent a lot of time and space trying to figure out how they were going to escape only to write down that they escaped a different way. The major player shows herself a few times within the chapter and another character proved they needed a slightly bigger role.

A few things to keep in mind, if multiple ideas spread over a lot of cards, keep them together by marking somewhere that they go with card(s) X, Y and Z. For example, I usually put an 'advised chapter' on the back and mark in the lower right hand corner 'card X of Y.'

On the topic of keeping things together, the 'advised chapter' is more of a rough idea. It should not set in stone. If you think some of your cards could work as one chapter or a card that can work split into two chapters even though their not marked as such, write down somewhere that they're combined. I have a card that I use as a 'table of contents' that has chapter titles and what advised chapters they work with:

0. Prolouge
1. Chance Meetings
2. Nemudx (2&3)
...
14. Nemudx Broken (21&22)
15. A King's Funeral (23&24.1)
16. Final Battle (24.2&25)
17. Epilogue

If you haven't already guessed, the parentheses are the 'advised chapters.' I combined a lot of them and, due to the combining, I had to tie almost all of the 'confirmed chapters' to 'advised chapters.' At chapters fifteen and sixteen, I marked '24.1' and '24.2.' That was an indication where I split the advised chapter twenty-four.

To summarise:

• Short summary similar to the Snowflake Method
• Start from the beginning and end
• Keep it short, vague and stick to the big stuff
• Save the small stuff for when you write
• Use markings to keep certain cards together
• Have a table of contents to use for notes

I hope this helps anyone out there! Happy writing!

Love always, 

Ali

P.S. If you want to read Cerulean, the first few chapters are available to read here.