From Idea
To Full Blown Story
by Carolyne Aarsen
I don't know how you come up with stories, but for me it is often a glimpse of a scene, a conversation between hero and heroine, a moment of tension and I start asking questions.
I used to lay out the story in rough draft, starting from what I thought was the beginning. As I worked, trying to be self-disciplined, other scenes would come. I would store them away in my mind, promising I would get to them when I was at that point in the story. Right.
I've found I've missed opportunities, missed some good interaction with the characters.
A hint from a friend reinforced something I had heard a number of times. Use scene cards. Long ago I had heard this and had pooh-poohed it. Until I got my proposal for my seventh book back the third time and I knew I needed help.
I approached the idea hesitantly, scared that I would run off on tangents and not get enough information together but as I started to write scenes on cards I discovered freedom. Freedom to roam all over the story. To write down whatever thought might have grabbed me, whatever conversation between my characters that might have caught me in an unguarded moment (the shower comes to mind). I could write it down and it didn't matter where it was in the story. It was on a card and it was portable, moveable and disposable if need be.
So now, I carry index cards in my purse, they are beside my bed, in my computer room. I don't have to limit the scenes I am writing down to my work in progress. I can work on stories that are just a glimmer and might not get done for another year. Doesn't matter. The card can be filed and it will wait.
And the beauty of the scene cards is I can lay them out and 'see' my story in one huge conglomeration. I can see where the gaps are, where the action slows, where I need to do more brainstorming, where I have spent too much time. I can mark on the card how each scene forwards the romance and the plot. I can move the story around and rearrange it.
Scene cards have taught me to work with my personality, not against it. I still need to be self-disciplined to write and finish the story, but thanks to the scene cards, I am allowed to work on a bunch of things at once and go where my mind takes me.
And if I find a good recipe, I have something to write it down on!
Find more great articles in the Members' Only section
