When I first started writing, I was a pantser writer (that means I wrote by the seat-of-my-pants…no planning or plotting), but the more stories I created and the longer they became, I had to morph into a hybrid writer where I would have to write a high-level outline and then I could sit down and write my books.
I recently ran across the concept of visual plotting aka storyboarding on Rachel Vincent’s blog** and the idea really appealed to me for a couple of reasons:
1) Because I’m a very visual person
2) Because when you write bulleted items down in an outline format on paper and you print it out to read it away from your computer, you aren’t given the freedom to “mess” with the order of events/scenes(how and when they occur) as easily.
So I thought I’d give this concept a whirl for my current manuscript Insurrection (the second book in my Scions Silhouette Nocturne trilogy).
Supplies needed:
1) Dry erase board big enough to hold a LOT of sticky notes. 
2) Different colored post it notes to represent different aspects of your story, ie Main plot, main subplot, secondary plot, minor subplot and of course the romance.
3) Dry erase markers. (I tried to match mine to the sticky notes, which I’ll tell you why below)
Basically what you’re trying to do is take high-level ideas and put them on sticky notes in a one-liner format. As ideas/new scenes come to you, keep writing them down on the appropriate colored post it notes and then plunk them on your erasable marker board in no particular order. Once you have as many as you can think of, start placing your ideas/scenes on the board in the order that makes the most sense for them to happen in your story. After you have placed all of them, you might get an idea to move a scene earlier or later and that in turn might spur new ideas or scenes or plot twists for your story…to which you’ll jot down on a new post it.
In my mind, this kind of plotting helps for two reasons: 1) It’s more flexible and 2) It lets you see if your story is balanced or where you might need to add more elements for a better balance. For instance, if you look at my storyboard at the bottom of this post, you’ll see that I don’t have any light pink post its at the end. Light pink post its represent the romance aspects of my story. Yep, I haven’t figured out yet exactly how I want the story to end. Also, since I have yellow at the beginning but nothing near the end, I can tell I need to make sure I carry my secondary plot further into the story. I have ideas for both additional light pinks and yellow posts its, and those I could either jot down on a few post its and keep them to the side until I decide which one I want to use OR I could use my markers and write out the different ending ideas on the board off to the side. That’s why the coordinated markers might come in handy.
Rachel’s example helped her formulate her synopsis, which I think is the BEST use of this storyboard…ie, high-level plotting. That’s exactly what each of those post it notes represent…plot points, twists, romantic scenes, etc that will happen in the story—and that’s exactly how you write a synopsis…at a high level.
Will Insurrection follow this outline? Some of it will (hence the reason I’ve blurred out the writing. NO SPOILERS! 
), but it does give me a very loose road map and a place to “play with” ideas and tweak my story as I’m moving along.
For a great tool with many functions such as:
1) Helping you get out of a plotting rut
2) Helping you write up a synopsis when you haven’t written the rest of the story yet…ie, selling on proposal
3) Helping you tweak your novel as you’re writing it
Give storyboarding a try and see what you think.
Post its color-coded legend (also pilfered from Rachel** )
Green: Main plot
Hot pink: Main subplot
Yellow: Secondary plot
Blue: Minor subplot
Light Pink: Romance
Tip: I wrote on the back of my post it pads what each color represented. Then if I forgot while I was plotting which color went with what, I just flipped over the pad to remind myself. That should come in handy since it might be a month or two before I use the pads again for the “next” story plotting.
** Giving kudos and credit where it’s due. :yes:
This is absolutely awesome. Can’t wait to put it to use. Thanks.
You’re welcome, Anne-Marie. I hope you find it useful, too.
That is an awesome idea – and it even looks PRETTY! lol!
I am a very visual writer, I ‘see’ my scenes as I write them and I try to imagine the book as a film with a definite structure to it. (beginning, middle – crescendo – epiphany) so it’s true that visual plotting is very helpful. I’ll have to try this.
I’ll have to get some colored sticky notes!
I hope it works for you, Sam! Let us know how it goes!
Huh. That’s very interesting, Patrice!
Hey Anya! You should give it a try. I think you’d find it useful. :yes:
Shelley Bradley has used this method for years. She introduced it to me at RT last year and I was in awe. No wonder she’s sold like 17 books. I love this idea! I’m a pantser at times, but the sticky notes bring me back to reality! Glad to see you’re using them too!
And isn’t it fun buying the sticky notes? Light pink is my favorite color… for romance.
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Hey Dana! Yes, I think it’s a wonderful tool, but I don’t think I would’ve used it as much in the past as I do now. For me, at least…experience trying to wing my way through a 120K novel gave me my first taste of the benefits of high-level plotting.
I LOVE the colorful sticky notes, especially the light pink! :yes:
[...] 8. Write ideas down on sticky notes and put on a large surface, like a dry erase board large enough to hold a lot of stick notes! Patrice Michelle has some ideas on the subject on her blog. She calls it “visual plotting.” We’re not talking about plotting in this post, but about brainstorming. However a lot of what she talks about is just another way to brainstorm. 9. Collage. Here’s a fun one. Buy magazines that might relate to what it is you’re writing. Like fantasy or Wiccan magazines in my case. Or just general magazines, like People Magazine, etc. Then flip through them and cut out everything you think relates or has some significance in your story. The one I’m showing you is very simple. But it was fun, relaxing, and it did make me think. There are things on this poster that you can’t see, like “He made his choice.” I put this under a picture of a man who looks like the warlock Darkwolf in my “Magic” series. The woman with the wild hair is perfect for Ceithlenn, the dark goddess who escaped from Underworld. The faerie is perfect for a small faerie who sneaks into our world. Then, what was really cool, was that I found a woman with great feathered wings. Then I found a man who’s dark, rough, a real bad boy, and pasted him on top of the woman with wings so that it looks like he has them! Perfect for my Fae warrior hero (they can vanish their wings with a thought). I found beasts that serve as demons, a pentagram, and more sayings, like “The battle between good and evil starts within,” and “The Ruthless,” “The Soulless.” And, cool, cool, cool, as I was making it, my fellow author and friend Mackenzie McKade helped me find letters to make WICKED MAGIC, using the same style lettering, at the top of the poster. We had to be creative and use a 6 for the G, and an I and O put together to make a D, but hey, it looks cool. So what a relaxing, fun way to brainstorm. Hmmmm…maybe that’s what I need to do for SURRENDER TO MAGIC, book 4 in the “magic” series that I’m currently working on! [...]