Anyone have a plot outline spreadsheet or a good idea for organizing all my clues, red herrings, and subplots? I don't want to start November completely in the dark, I tried that last year and thew out the first manuscript after 20,000 words.
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"You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
-Mark Twain
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Okt 10, 2007 - 23 57
To keep track of characters, I use a table -- like a spreadsheet, but with words instead of numbers. I have five columns: Name, Motive, Means, Opportunity, and Status. As my main characters learn things about the suspects, I enter the data in the table. The final column, Status, tells me where that particular character is at the point I have reached in the novel -- for example, "suspect, not interviewed yet" or "prime suspect, in jail" or "no longer suspect -- dead."
I also sometimes create a time line in order to keep straight who does what when and where everybody is at any given time. Like the spreadsheet, I update that as my main characters learn things. And of course, there are often question marks when a witness provides questionable information.
----------Carol Anne
2004: The Magnificent What? -- winner
2005: Murder at the Community College -- winner
2006: Murder at the Yacht Club -- winner
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Okt 11, 2007 - 06 49
Last year I used index cards. I made a list of all the clues they needed to solve the mystery, and all the red herrings to distract them. Then I wrote each on an index card, with a short blurb of a scene I thought might work. Then I shuffled them around till they made a sort of workable outline.
Don't know if that works for you, but it helped me.
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Okt 11, 2007 - 07 20
I like that idea! I may have to snag it.
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50,030 / 50,000
Okt 11, 2007 - 16 44
The Writer's Digest book "Writing & Selling Your Mystery Novel" by Hallie Ephron has a lot of spreadsheets and lists and blank outline forms to help you plan and keep track of what you're doing. I am using it to help plan my mystery.
Here it is on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Selling-Your-Mystery-Novel/dp/1582973768
50,353 / 50,000
Okt 11, 2007 - 19 55
Thanks. I actually just found this book. I picked it up last year and stuffed it in a box, I just found it and you're right...there is a ton of good stuff.
----------______
"You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
-Mark Twain
www.mattswritesite.com
Nano '06 WINNER as "Fook"
Nano '07 WINNER as "BillieTrident"
Screnzy '06 DNF
20,708 / 50,000
Okt 19, 2007 - 06 12
The software WRITE YOUR OWN NOVEL (also called NOVEL WRITER) by GSP Software is a good all-purpose organiser for fiction. It's widely available, inexpensive, and easy to use. I use it all the time and can recommend it wholeheartedly!
There's no option for clues, especially, but there are sections for "notes" and "ideas" that you can hijack. You might even label each clue as a character, because for every "event" (scene) you can list which characters are present. That's an idea I might have to try, come to think of it...
It's particularly good for sorting out complex plots and subplots (including backstory) because you do your plotting as a series of "events", which you can add in any order and always re-order as you see fit. Events can have any duration and can overlap. There's a graphic timeline that updates automatically.