Captain's Log, Supplemental
Writers write in all kinds of ways. My way happens to involve lots of Post-It notes and my closet doors.
This is my brainstorm for my new novel proposal. I’m pretty excited about it, because it involves dogs. :)
Anyway, you can see that it’s kind of like a bunch of Post-Its hit exponential cell growth. Oops, sorry, I lapsed into biologist-speak. Well, you can obviously see my Post-Its exploded.
I just stand there with Post-Its in one hand and a Sharpie in the other and start scribbling ideas and sticking them on the wall. Sometimes I group ideas together like a big amoeba, other times I put random ideas wherever there’s space.
Later, I’ll go through and discard what I don’t like. But while I’m brainstorming, I try not to cull ideas—I just come up with as many as I can, one after the other.
I use my closet doors because they’re bigger than a corkboard. I put adhesive shelf liner on them to help the Post-Its stick better. I had to try four different liners before I found one where the Post-Its stuck rather than fell off, but I’m really pleased because the liner helps the Post-Its stick better than just the paint on the doors.
I finished this proposal last week, so now I’m going to clean these off and stick them on notebook pages for storage. Then I’ll Post-It all over the place for my next proposal!
Writers write in all kinds of ways. My way happens to involve lots of Post-It notes and my closet doors.
This is my brainstorm for my new novel proposal. I’m pretty excited about it, because it involves dogs. :)
Anyway, you can see that it’s kind of like a bunch of Post-Its hit exponential cell growth. Oops, sorry, I lapsed into biologist-speak. Well, you can obviously see my Post-Its exploded.
I just stand there with Post-Its in one hand and a Sharpie in the other and start scribbling ideas and sticking them on the wall. Sometimes I group ideas together like a big amoeba, other times I put random ideas wherever there’s space.
Later, I’ll go through and discard what I don’t like. But while I’m brainstorming, I try not to cull ideas—I just come up with as many as I can, one after the other.
I use my closet doors because they’re bigger than a corkboard. I put adhesive shelf liner on them to help the Post-Its stick better. I had to try four different liners before I found one where the Post-Its stuck rather than fell off, but I’m really pleased because the liner helps the Post-Its stick better than just the paint on the doors.
I finished this proposal last week, so now I’m going to clean these off and stick them on notebook pages for storage. Then I’ll Post-It all over the place for my next proposal!
Wish I had a room for that. I don't think DH would like the living room wall plastered with Post-it notes. Right now, a yellow legal pad is for notes and brainstorming.
ReplyDeleteI was reading your post and asking myself, "But, Post-Its really aren't all that sticky. How does she keep them from falling off?"
ReplyDeleteI never would've thought of shelf liners.
If you have a Mac, I would HIGHLY recommend you look into a piece of software called Scrivener. It is a word processor made for writers. Very cool. Has a virtual cork board and 3x5 cards. Your method is sacred, but it might be worth a look.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know you could post active links in the COMMENTS of a blog. Camy you are so far ahead of me in this stuff. (I know...duh)
ReplyDeleteI got here from the Novel Journey blog's comments section. I've never seen that done before.
Teach Me!