Plotting Along

Or should the title of this post be "Plodding Along?" Heaven knows it's taking me forever to do the revisions/edits on Honor Bound. I am still on track to complete all the revisions by the end of July. It's a miracle, I know.

I'll be starting the revisions/edits and rewrites on the second book in the series the first full week of August. No title for that manuscript yet. I just refer to it as Vince's story. I'm terrible at coming up with titles. My goal is to have the revision/editing process on this manuscript completed by the end of October.

I also want to start working on the third book in the series. The opening scene is already written. I've learned I cannot write a draft from beginning to end without doing any revisions as I go along otherwise the editing/revising process takes me waaaaay too long. That being said, I'll be doing revisions to the third book as I write it.

I don't normally use a detailed plotting format when writing a first draft, but I don't really fly by the seat of my pants either. I sort of do a combination of the two. I write out two or three sentences for each chapter to help keep me on track. For the third book, I really want to try using a more detailed outline. I hope to be able to work on the outline a couple of days each week while I'm doing the revisions on Vince's story.

I'm planning on the plot outline being maybe seven to ten pages. Or I might try using index cards. I have a friend who writes out two to three index cards per chapter plus extra cards for major turning points, relationship growth, etc. She then puts the cards in order that she thinks the story will flow. There have been times where she's moved a card from one chapter to another earlier or later in the story. I like the idea of being able to rearrange things without having to cross out or use arrows on a page to indicate something being moved from one point in the manuscript to another.

With school supplies coming on sale soon, this might be a great time to pick up some index cards and give this method a try.