Writing novel with index cards

Just a short description of what happens in the scene the action 2 lay them out in order on the floor, bulletin board, or table. Many writing apps feature corkboard style digital index cards for various functions, while there are also many standalone mobile apps for creating index cards. Everyone has plans to write the great american novel. When in corkboard view, your documents are presented as index cards with synopses shown on them, you can move the cards around to change the order of your documents in a writing project. Notecards help students organize facts, visualize an outline and ultimately transform their research into a paper. With one set of character cards in hand, start writing down onesentence scene ideas, one per card. Then those beats and scenes are written on colorcoded index cards. The editing process will go easier if you devote time to plot in the beginning. Dont worry about writing them down in any specific order. It can be tough to pull together the plot for a novel.

Therefore, i have adapted rozs index card technique to help get ready for nanowrimo in only a few days. I mapped out the whole plot using one or two sentences for each scene, wrote them on cards and stuck them to the wall. I write out the cards using a pencil, so that i can easily change what happens on each card, if necessary. How i wrote my novel using index cards the literary consultancy. If working with scene cards during these stages isnt right for you, that doesnt mean they cant be of use during revisions. The notecard system the key for remembering, organizing and using everything you read, an article by ryan holiday. The notecards on which vladimir nabokov wrote lolita. Im an outliner, and i have been looking for a better solution for my story planning needs. Jan 31, 2011 scene cards can be used as an outlining tool before you begin your 30day effort, or as a daily writing and brainstorming technique. Youd write out each scene on an index card john meets carl, accident happens, murder occurs and so on and then mix them around until the basic outline of the story makes sense. The goal is to write a 50 novel by pm on november read more here.

The key to getting the story out is to organize your thoughts with an outline and get busy writing. Nabokovs writing method, or the only essay writing advice. How to outline a story with index cards literary fiction writer. You can draw lines on the corkboard to make a grid of spaces the size of index cards if youre very neat im not or just pin a few marker cards up to structure your space. Scene card scene cards can be used as an outlining tool before you begin your 30day effort, or as a daily writing and brainstorming technique. Writing and selling your novel is a revision and an expansion, a new edition, but with the same mission. Thats how i do life, thats how i started writing flash fiction and short stories, and i imagined thats how i would write a novel. The old organize with index card thing is a bit different than this. When using index cards for outlining, some writers get detailed with their cards, making one for each scene. If youre writing a short story or novel, you probably wont have this problem. Love the idea, even though i prefer evernotedigital record keeping system. You have figured out the crime, clues, red herrings, and how the case is solved.

Many writers use these or index cards to plan out their book plots. You can write each of these ideas on index cards or sticky notes, so you can change the order of events with a flip of a card or a new arrangement of sticky notes. Just remember rules may be broken if you can explain why you 10 novel writing tips very succinct and useful. Getting an overview of a portion or the entirety of your writing project. When you switch back to the corkboard view, these documents will automatically become index cards. Supernotecard is an online writing tool that provides virtual notecards to help arrange facts or scenes, track details, organize paragraphs, and clarify your compositional process. Scriveners freeform corkboard allows you to arrange index cards in whatever pattern you like without affecting their order in the binder. The foolscap method the foolscap method is a way to get a big project starteda novel, a ph.

Planning to write a novel with index cards youtube. Once each scene is written, you can scribble notes about it on an index card and consider the above points. Heres one way to use index cards to create your outline. Unlike notes stored on a computer or other electronic device, a stack of cards on your shelf is visible and therefore easier to find and less likely to be. Some writers may prefer a pack of colorful index cards or go for simple white ones. I n this article im going to show you how to use index cards and synopsises in fade in for organizing or outlining your script. For those novelists out there struggling with their current methods, look these over and try something new. Get out a pack of index cards, write the name of each character on the correct number of cards, and if youd like, on a few extras ill make eighteen for elsie and mike, ten or eleven for frisco and annabelle. However, you may be wondering, then if everyone has a great story, how can they get the story out.

From outlining to sticky notes to just writing the darn thing, novel writing is a process that can differ for each writer. Writing on index cards and consideringtrashing scenes by using them felt like re writing over several drafts, only with much less effort. How to plot a novel with index cards pen and the pad. Ive wondered this ever since reading robert pirsigs novel lila, in which the lead character is a philosopher who lives on a boat, writing his magnum opus on thousands of cards. Create index cards for the major sections of your book. This can be very useful for laying out a story before you write it, or for reordering or restructuring purposes.

Index cards work without batteries and outside the range of cellphones, so you can use them even in the most remote corners of the globe. You can imagine various scenarios for each scene and toss out the ones that dont catch your fancy or do not seem organic. Novel planning i hate to outline, but i have learned that writing a novel requires outliningif not at the beginning, then at some point down the line. My favorite writing program has an index card feature, which i also use. Include notes for subplots, when characters are introduced, whose point of view it is, etc. Three ways to integrate scene cards into your writing.

Planning to write a novel with index cards heath robinson. Click and drag to rearrange your cards, add titles, colors, link to files on your computer or on the internet including media files. To do this, just create a new document, as you normally would for a new scene or chapter, within the storyboard folder. Index cards are a great tool for writers to use to outline their story and help them envision the overall structure, whether a novel or film. Since i often create detailed timelines, expansive settings and employ large casts of characters, ive developed other tricks to keep track of details. For example, you can also use a pile of cards to write down character sheets and info, setting ideas and names of places, random bits of dialogue that come to you to work in later, etc.

Writing a research paper using colorcoded index cards. The best virtual index card software for story planning. If life gets in the way and you have to put your novel aside for a time, at least you will have everything you have gotten together so far organized in index cards and in your story notebook. Filling out index cards approximately 56 index cards will be familiar to just about anyone who has written a screenplay. Learn how to write and finish a novel the balance careers. These days i use virtual index cards to create a detailed outline of my novel before i put pen to paper to create a first draft. Once the names are on the cards, pull out a card set i start with the secondary viewpoint characters, because this lets me let the main story float for a while, building up momentum. Use index cards on a corkboard to manage your documents. Jan 06, 20 using index cards has the potential to get very bulky. However, some writers find that the novel writing process becomes easier and more streamlined when they use certain techniques. A lowtech writers tool that makes book planning much easier.

Once you have your plot in mind, deal yourself a deck of index cards equal to the number of chapters. Write down the plot piece by piece on the index cards. Index cards should be easy to find at most office supply stores or in the school supplies section of many grocery stores. I think the trouble with tribbles is one of the all time best episodes of all star trek series. Outlining a novel with index cards w r i t e d o w n a l l e y. Many writers prefer to store their index cards in a file box or a photo album. How to use index cards to outline your book writing plot, writing. Storyboarding as it pertains to novels and short stories is the process of mapping out your story, often using index cards, in a highlevel way that allows you to see your story visually and rearrange it. Scene cards can also play a critical role in revision. Writing a novel using index cards the first question i was asked after i explained this method to a friend was. You can also write down the characters or actions each chapter should include.

How to plot a novel with index cards plotting a novel. That said, i do write bits and pieces of scenes here and there, as the ideas come to me, so i have a feeling for my main characters voices while im doing the cards. Laugh all you like, says oliver burkeman, index cards are. May 03, 2016 if i were to write colonus as a feature, it would be a very different process. Get index cards flash cards, notes, projects, flashcards.

Having died in 1977, nabokov never completed the book, and so all penguin had to publish decades later came to, as the subtitle indicates, a novel in fragments. Having the entire structure mapped out, he would then approach writing as a painter would approach a canvas, jotting down various pieces of the novel on index cards, filling in the blanks of the narrative in no particular order, following his whim and inspirationjust like a painter, who normally doesnt work strictly from left to right to. If you picked up the original of laura, vladimir nabokovs final novel, youll have seen his distinctive index cardbased writing method in action. Keeping your ideas, characters, and plot moving forward successfully is not an easy feat, and many writers end up overwhelmed. Working with index cards im now going deeper into this planning and editing of my novel than i ever anticipated and it is making me both excited and, if im really honest, a little scared. Write act one at the top of the first column, act two at the top of the second or third if youre doing eight columns, act two.

Fade in gives you the possibility to view all your scenes as index cards. Oct 16, 20 writing a novel can be an intimidating task. For example, lets say you are writing a mystery novel. Next, create an index card for your first act or chapter. Write a oneline synopsis of each specific scene that you think should be in your story, one scene per card. In bickhams book, marketing is twined into the writing. Create structure in your fiction using index cards writers digest. This simply refers to outlining a piece of writing after the fact. Unique among all note taking, index card or flash card apps, index cards is focused on taking notes and providing a creative and inspiring user experience for what i would call a creative professional such as a project manager, story writer, product manager, student, creative teams. Whether youre a plotter or a panster, writing fiction or nonfiction, you can benefit from using index cards to plot your book ahead of time. All are either transcribed onto index cards or sheets of paper are folded and placed in the appropriate section in the file box. This is the most common way of using index cards by far. Working with index cards a writing vlog where i share how im getting on with editing the first draft of my novel you can.

Scrivener s corkboard view provides the perfect interface to storyboard your novel digitally. Outlining your novel on index cards can also help you if your creative flow gets interrupted. How i wrote my novel using index cards the literary. Index cards can be used instead of the worksheet if preferred. How to use index cards in fade in writers territory. Writers were using index cards long before personal. I also use an index card holder with alphabet dividers, which is. Oct 31, 2015 one of the people who has helped me the most in moving from writing as a hobby toward writing as a profession is roz morris, the author of nail your novel s. Any good screenplay starts with an outline of the big story beats and the individual scenes that make them up. Just testing out this whole blog creating thing on writing.

Outlining a novel with index cards this preptober to win nanowrimo. Aug 01, 20 if you arent a big planner, you can still make use of index cards to examine a novel using the reverse outline process. How do you guys use index cards to aid in your writing process. Still, others only have a conflict and a general idea of where they plan to end up before diving in. On how to take notes while reading or doing research by using index cards. This article includes samples of outlines, chapter summaries, character sketches, setting descriptions, note cards.

Com images are ed and may not be copied modified in any way. Working with index cards a writing vlog where i share how im getting on with editing the first draft of my novel you can see all the previous ones in this playlist helpfulled. In fact, most researchers believe that everyone has at least one great story inside them. Scrivener corkboard templates for organisation creative. These fragments he wrote on 8 cards, and the book as published includes fullcolor. I write novels of about 40 50 chapters each an exact correlation to the number of scenes i would write in a movie, and i find my books break down into sequences of about 50 pages each. Working with index cards im now going deeper into this planning and editing of my novel than i ever anticipated and it is making me. National novel writing month is a novel writing initiative. Act one is about 100 pages, act two is about 200 pages, and act three is a little less than 100 pages. Plotting your next novel with index cards on a corkboard. Its very useful for experimenting with different scene orders, but it can be made even more useful with some simple backgrounds.

How to use index cards to outline your book meagan burgess. Nanowrimo calender a handy guide for those who appreciate structured writing days. In the past, i have used writers cafes storyline tool, scriveners outline index card tool, and recently have tested virtual index card applications like writers blocks, throughline, text block writer almost, but had no fixed grid option, and is quite buggy, and supernotecard which is the one i. Throughine is an interactive index card program that organizes your story ideas and creative notions the way you think about them. I start a new box of index cards for every novel i write. May 08, 2009 ive wondered this ever since reading robert pirsigs novel lila, in which the lead character is a philosopher who lives on a boat, writing his magnum opus on thousands of cards. Stacey recommends using index cards to plan your novel. Three ways to integrate scene cards into your writing process. If you are creating a page book, index cards might be overwhelming. If you picked up the original of laura, vladimir nabokovs final novel, youll have seen his distinctive index card based writing method in action. Index cards for windows 10 supporting windows ink, ideal for students, writers and project managers. Research papers can seem like monumental tasks, but writing a strong paper is actually a rather straightforward procedure.