I wrote my first novel in 2008, and since then, I’ve developed a process that works well for me:
- take frantic notes on initial idea
- organize notes into timeline
- turn timeline into outline (this is the first part in the computer)
- sketch out details about characters
- write!
I’m a very organized writer, which won’t surprise long-time followers of this blog, and my process has become more and more fine-tuned with each book. After 12 novels, I felt confident in my system.
Then I started working on my current idea.
It’s romantic suspense (at least I think that’s what it’ll be), and there are a LOT more moving parts than in my previous books. I made it safely through the “take frantic notes” stage, but when I tried organizing those notes into a timeline, I quickly realized I was going to need a different system.
For a hot minute I debated using excel, but every ounce of creativity in my body screamed NO at using a spreadsheet. Then a flash of brilliance struck:
Sticky notes!
I’ve seen quite a few writers post pictures of their walls covered in different colored stickies, and while I’ve never seen what they actually write on them, the idea of applying different colors to different elements of the story made sense to my brain.
Here’s how I broke down each color:
- Yellow = main character’s day-to-day happenings
- Pink = romance / love interest
- Green = warnings about bad guy / casting suspicion on others
- Blue = people being bad / manipulative
- Purple = creepy / suspicious things
Here’s the full novel, which I finished yesterday.
The colors make it immediately obvious where I have gaps — need more blue in there! — and you can see where the tone shifts and the plot turns. My husband came into my office when I was on the final stickies and I was jumping in my chair because I was so excited. I haven’t felt this way about a book in years and it felt GOOD.
My next steps are to fill in the gaps, then put this outline into a Word document, organize my notes on the characters into a character bible, then start writing!
