Hope you had a good weekend! I went to Iowa.
Mostly to see this cutie.
But also, to brainstorm book 3 of a Time-Travel Detective series I’m writing.
Yes, I said Time Travel. And Detective. And it’s a series…so they are connected. And, it’s quite a mess…
As my son (my brainstorming partner and co-writer, along with James L. Rubart) and I put up our papers, I thought…how are we going to unsnarl all the threads to create a cohesive book #3? See, we’d brainstormed the entire series together a few years ago, but since then, some of the plots have deepened, the characters grown and we’ve discovered some problems (this happens in time travel. I keep breaking the rules!)
So, what do you do when you find yourself in a snarl in your book, or series? When your characters are off the track and the plot has twisted—in a good way—and you don’t know how to tame it?
Here are some ideas on how to get back on track:
Tools needed: Post it Notes, markers, a big white board, a brainstorming partner, pizza and a Saturday afternoon.
Step One: Isolate those things that Can Not change. The elements already written, or the key plot twists of the story. These are the foundational pins of your story.
EG:
- Our character is a detective. He can’t switch jobs.
- He still loses people very close to him.
- The rules of our time travel world can’t flex…we can only discover MORE about them.
Step Two: Identify the theme of the next book – the subject matter you want to explore. For us, it was relationships… now, all our external conflict causes trouble in his relationships.
Step Three: Brainstorm all the fun moments you see happening in your story. I take post-it notes and write down as many plot twists, relational drama, and conflict points I can think of. Not all of them will work.
Step Four: This is my high level trick—put those post it notes in a sort of order of appearance. Summarize each step on another post it note, adding a number to it, and now you have a “big picture view.”
Step Five: You’re now in good shape to form this into a plot and tell yourself the story.
It took us about six hours to brainstorm this book back into shape, (and a little pizza, and some cookies), but now I’m ready to start writing again.
The moral of this story is that it’s okay to be lost…as long as you have a plan to find your way out of the woods.
Your story matters. It’s worth the time to untangle it.
Have a brilliant writing week!
Susie May
P.S. FINALLY, for those who have been asking, our Brilliant Writing Planner is DIGITAL! It’s new, so it’s only $10!! Available for Ipads and Tablets.
