I keep forgetting to try the story maps. Perhaps you’ve given me another way to see the story at a glance, DV. That’s always so very valuable to me…so THANKS BUNCHES! 🙂

As a huge plantser myself I think I’ve stumbled upon a method of organising and writing that very much resembles this “scene quilting” method of yours. I write in good old Word, but I’ve been using the tools at OneStopForWriters to do something similar to what you’ve done. I map out a quick 3-Act map using the Story Map tool and I put together a scene list for my latest WIP using the Timeline tool. So each scene is a chunk of time, as the book takes place over a condensed time period.

Now when I sit down to write, I just pick a time (scene) from the timeline that I feel like writing, or at random when I don’t feel like any of them, and I just start writing something for that scene.

I think I’m going to have to spend a good 2nd draft on massaging the story as a whole, because right now it feels exactly like a bunch of scenes plonked next to each other and less like a cohesive story, but that’s manageable in the 2nd pass.

Another unexpected bonus I’ve found with this method is it keeps my wordcount down. As you’ve probably already noticed, I suffer from the keyboard form of verbal diarrhoea. 😅 I find writing scenes from a list keeps me focused on the task at hand, whereas writing linearly I tend to “babble” more and more get to the middle and just lose all momentum and interest. And I have to cut so many words even if I do push through.

Thanks again!

Will do!

Good for you, Michelle! I’d love it if you came back and let me know how that worked for you.

Okay, I also love this. I’m in for the next word war!

Let me know when you have another Word War. I am so there!

Word War should be a site!

I started having Word Wars years ago during NaNoWriMo. They usually ran half an hour or a full hour. My favorite way was to all meet up online somewhere, then start at the same time and come back and cheer and compare stats after. It can also be done individually…but then you share your results when you’re done sometime that same day.

One time, we had a Word War weekend…with a prize. The winner’s name had to be incorporated into each of our manuscripts. It gave all of us a huge push!

What a wonderful way to team up and game-ify! That is VERY cool. Is Word War a site? (Because if not, it should be!)

I bow to you detailed plotters! I don’t know how to keep my interest sustained without that, “what’s going to happen” pushing me forward.