Quite a few months ago, I was wishing for a wall-sized bulletin board on which to pin my outline cards. With Intangible, I kept my stack of cards next to me at all times. I’d flip through them or lay them out on the floor if I was trying to figure out where to put a new scene, if I needed to move some plot points around, or if I was just checking to see if I’d created a well filled-out story. It worked.
With Imaginable I’ve been doing the same thing, but a part of me kept wishing for a place to lay them out and leave them there so I could see things at a glance. However, I have no such undisturbed floor space (not with four young kids running around here) and so I was eye-balling my walls.
However, I LOVE art and my walls are happily covered with all the pieces we’ve collected (or created) over the last fifteen years, so there is no good wall space for me to attach a giant cork board. I nearly drooled when I saw my friends Suz’s magnetic wall (and I’ve tucked that idea away for my future house and home office). But when I stumbled upon Kristin Cashore’s idea for a fabric wall hanging to pin cards to, I knew I’d found my solution. (Unlike Kristin, I’ve taped my cards to the fabric rather than pinning them–the pinning was *not* easy and I could only imagine what a pain it would be to pin and unpin as I rearranged things…for I already know it will need some rearranging. So for now I’m going with tape and hoping that keeps the cards up there.)
I’ve found that I really need the outline up now that I’m back in the midst of Imaginable after a two-month hiatus during which I wrote and released Indomitable. (I’m also revisiting that jarring feeling of going from polished manuscript back to very UNpolished. I’m having to remind myself, again, that it’s okay. It’ll get better.) (Because it WILL.)
As I’ve jumped back into Imaginable, I don’t remember when things happened or even all the events of the plot. Which, you know, is a BIT of a challenge. So (finally) having this up is a huge help—I can go stare at it to figure out just where the heck I am in the story. (Also, as a bonus, I have it hanging right next to my bed so it’s this ENORMOUS reminder for me to GET BACK TO WORK.)
Speaking of which…I should probably get back to work. :-)
Have a great weekend, everyone!