Working With A Planner - The Creative Process

 

 WORKING WITH A PLANNER

I have always been someone who loved to organise. It was the way I did my exams as a teen, and again as an adult. It's how I function and how I work, and it's just my process for working through things. If I have a plan and am organised, then things can't go wrong, and if they do, I'll have a plan for that as well!

However, I haven't, really, since starting writing ever been one for a planner. I loved the idea of a bullet journal, but my artistic skill is zilch and it just doesn't appeal to me in that way. I saw a fellow authortuber with a flowery planner, and I had to get one. Up until that point I had been using the sticky notes app on my computer and it was starting to get glitchy so I didn't want to have to fight with it every month when a planner was a lot easier, and more able to be carried around.

I got the planner in February, it had been a birthday gift from my mum, but arrived late, and then settled down to use it for the first time in March, and boy, I was in love. All the stickers, all the coloured pens and all the ways I could reward myself with getting things done, and track how many books I read as well as my usual count of chapters, pages and words. It opened me up to a whole new way of planning, and I have to say, over six months later, I will be keeping this system for as long as it works for me. I've already ordered next years planner since it'll take a while to get here.

So why does it work for me? I think it's because it allows me to look ahead at the coming months and pencil things in, it allows me to keep a plan both on my ipad and on the planner itself and to see what the week ahead is going to look like without the need to worry too much about whether the app would glitch and lose my notes. I still use sticky notes to keep track of things like post orders for blogs, and my Friday posts, and authortube. I also have a long note with all the publishing deadlines for the next seven years (yeah I know I won't need all that but it calms me, don't judge!) and another that has big things that need to be done soonish, but not right now.

And the planner itself allows me to keep track of appointments and bills, and other such things. It lets me break down my goals on a monthly level and then again on a weekly one. I have the pretty stickers and the pens in colour co-ordinated fashion depending on the project, and I also have the ability to move things around if needed. It doesn't need to be messy, but it can let me look ahead on a yearly scale, which was something I didn't have before. I always had a vague idea of when things would happen, but like that seven years of publishing, I can keep track of deadlines that way, and it's all either in the planner for that year, or on the ipad calendar for the upcoming year.

All this time I thought that I would never be able to find that I wanted - a planner that I could use one month and not the next without worrying about wasting the pages. Because the Flowery planner isn't dated, (and it has space for 13 months) I don't have to worry about if I skip a month or something. It's just opened up a whole new world to me that before was out of my reach.

Working with a planner has been amazing, and I did a whole video on how I plan, which I will link here. Overall, it feels like when people ask me how I manage to be so organised and such, I can point them to the planner and actually show them rather than not really knowing how to explain it. Planners are awesome, and if you use one, lemme know in the comments below!

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How I Organise My Time & Writing [CC]

 

Giving you all the details on how I organise my time and writing! #Authortube

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How I Plan - The Creative Process

HOW I PLAN

I've done a piece on how I edit (which can be found here) but I wanted to also do something about how I plan, not my time, I've done multiple pieces on that (found here and here) but on planning my books. I've told people before that I am neither a planner nor a pantser, but someone who falls in the middle, and as I've met other authors I've found that a lot of people sit somewhere in the middle. So how do I approach planning when I'm about to start a new project? How do I know how much is needed? And how do I know what to do with this minimal information? Let's start with the first one and work our way through.

HOW DO I APPROACH PLANNING?
From the first book I wrote, to the ones I write now, my planning has stayed very similar. It's been honed and grown, but it's along the same lines. The way I work for planning is simply a chapter plan and character notecards. The chapter plan is the main item when it comes to my planning, and how I do this is pretty easy.

I start with a blank word document, I have some idea of the plot points I need to meet, and hit and whereabouts in the the story it needs to be. I write out a line, no more than a sentence, and will write down bits and pieces that will trigger an idea in me. I also make sure that along with that I have the day of the week this chapter happens on. I didn't do this from the beginning but as I grew as a writer I knew that I was losing continuity especially when revising the books.

I will have some idea of how long the book will be and so will know how many chapters there needs to be, and from there I'll work on characters. The way I start planning characters is the main cast all get a notecard, from there I'll add a few other people that I know will be important. Since I write YA, this usually means the parents and any siblings and such.

I don't know ALL the characters that will come up, because of a lot of that happens in the drafting process and when I create a new one they get a notecard and along we go. For my notecards I'll have a general description, age, gender, pronouns, sexuality, and such like that and go from there!

HOW DO I KNOW HOW MUCH IS NEEDED?
This is really a simple one because for me, it's been a lot of books and from there I've learned just how much I need to know before I can get started. Like I need to know the majority of the main plot, some of it can be vague but other parts are not. If I'm writing a crime/mystery then I need to know what's going on with said crime or mystery, I need to know the bad guy and what they'll be doing to avoid getting caught. I need to know when said crimes will be done and whether or not there are external forces that will impact the story as a whole.

But overall, I know how much is needed because I've been doing it for a long time, and I'm just good at knowing how much information I personally need to be able to write effectively and not get stuck, or end up with a book that will be a nightmare to revise and such.

HOW DO I KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THIS MINIMAL INFORMATION?
Again, this is kinda simple in that it comes with knowing my writing process, and how my brain works. Like I usually know the beginning, the middle, but I rarely know the very end, the more I write, the better I get at knowing how to use the information effectively. Like if I have an idea for what needs to happen in this book, then I'll also be able to work out how to weave in foreshadowing, or allowing myself to go down a little path at some point that might not lead anywhere, but might also bring me the best ideas yet.

It's about knowing myself, my writing process, and how I work best. Every writer is different, we all create in our own ways and that's okay. So for me planning is something that'll take a couple of hours at most and then I can easily jump into the story and off I go drafting.

I will just add that while I don't outline extensively for drafting, I do outline when it comes to revising because I need to know what's going to be cut, what works, what doesn't, what needs to be rewritten and the like. And for that I do a similar way of doing things, but add more details to the chapter plan.

How do you plan? Lemme know in the comments down below!

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Planning For #NaNoWriMo 2019 - The Creative Process

PLANNING FOR #NANOWRIMO

It's that time of year again and #NaNoWriMo 2019 is already four days old! I thought about doing this piece earlier on in the schedule but I just couldn't find the time to slot it in, so even though we're all knee-deep in words and such, I thought I would still do a piece about how I plan for NaNoWriMo and see if it helps for anyone else who might be in the middle of something and realising they need to rethink things.

#1 - KNOW YOUR STORY
I've never really been a full out planner, though I do do some. I have my chapters plans and all of that, and since this year I will be finishing the end of two projects and starting two new ones, this meant that I had to start thought dumping plots for the next two way before November started. Since both of them are either standalones or a new series, I didn't even have to wait to finish my other two projects. I could jump right into the chapter plans and character notes and go from there. So my first tip is to make sure you know what you're going to be working on. For me that's, usually, two projects at once. Everyone is different.

#2 - KNOW YOUR PLAN
I more mean, know whether you need one or if you're able to pants the whole thing without any kind of plan. If you don't know that, then maybe see about making an outline at the least so that you have a better chance of actually finishing your project. I was pretty lucky in that when I wrote my début novel, I already had a pretty good idea of how I worked as a writer from other projects I'd done. But if you don't know, then plan anyway just in case, it might be that you find it's too much and stifles you, in which case, go pants the rest of it, there's no rule that says you have to stick to your plan one hundred percent.

#3 - KNOW YOUR WEAK SPOTS
I know that I am going to be pretty okay with the endings for the two projects, but I also know that since I edit as I go, and have done for a number of years, that I will spend some time doing that. So I've made sure to plan my writing time a little earlier in the day so that I can hit my goal for the day without losing time. This can also be something like having a playlist to write to if that's what you need, make it in advance so that you don't lose time searching for songs.

#4 - ENGAGE WITH THE COMMUNITY
This happens both before, during and after NaNo. Make friends, get to know people, find others in your area, or look at live writing sprints on Authortube, anything that will help you feel part of the masses who are taking on this task, and also have some buddies who can write with you, are interested in your story and all the rest.

#5 - ACCEPT IT WON'T BE THE VERY END
For me, my books are generally longer than 50K, like a lot longer, so I know that I won't finish it in the month. I also know that since I write two at once, I definitely won't get further than maybe the first act of the two new ones. But for those of you who are writing 50K, the book isn't done at the end of the month, even if you finish the first draft you still have revisions and edits and all of that to go through, so while yes you should celebrate hitting that 50K, prepare yourself for the rest of the work that will go into getting your novel published, should that be your end goal.

And finally, #6 - HAVE FUN, SLEEP, AND EAT AND ALL THE REST
I know that because the needed word count per day is something like 1,667, a lot of people don't have a lot of time to get those words in, so they forgo other important things to make sure they hit goal. My final point, and tip, is to remember that this is for fun, that you need sleep, you need to eat and sometimes, you also need to take a break. Don't burn yourself out, it's not easy to come back from that!

Overall, I wish you all a very happy #NaNoWriMo19, lemme know in the comments what you're working on, if you're doing it!

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Sticky Notes & How They Work For Me - The Creavtive Process

STICKY NOTES & HOW THEY WORK FOR ME

As I've talked about a whole bunch before (pieces here and here) I use the Sticky Notes function on Windows to plot and plan out my time better. I've been doing this for a number of years now and when the latest update messed with them, I had a bit of a panic to be honest because I'm not sure I'd do better with a different kind of system. I did look into planners, but they didn't have what I needed to be sure I could plan the month, and by week as well.

Now I thought that since it's been a while, and since I have changed things around a little. It used to be that I restricted myself to one thing a day and while that's still, mostly, true, I have gotten better at seeing the month ahead without yet planning it out on my sticky notes. As you can see from the graphic above, this is my layout for the end of September 2019 going into October 2019. I also use sticky notes for the order of Authortube videos, blog posts, Friday posts, my big long-term goals and book deadlines, but since they have some spoilers, I didn't share those.

But let's break down the image above and how it helps me stay on track. I have things colour-coded. Pink is an Opaque day, purple is an I'll See You Thru day, white is a complete day off, yellow is for days when I do vlogs, or other admin stuff, blue are editing days and the green you can't see is for things like post orders and such.

I obviously can plan quite a lot given the size of the notes and the size of my screen, but the reason I wanted to share this was because a lot of people have asked how they keep me motivated when I obviously struggle with other things. And the simple answer, I think, is that I'm a very list-orientated person. I like being able to check off what I've done. I love being able to delete something and then at the end of the work day get rid of the note altogether because I managed it, I did the thing guys! I adulted right!

But in all seriousness, it took me a long time to work out a system that worked for me. I am pretty visual, and I've been asked before about a bullet journal. The only reason I say no is because I have zero artistic talent and my hands don't work right for a lot of hand written stuff. It's part of the Fibro and it means that I rarely write my hand, which was another reason I hope that Sticky Notes don't go away, because they help me have so much control and don't rely on me using a pen to do it.

A lot of the time, as I spoke about last week, (piece found here) I struggle with the image I have projected. I know people see me as super organised, and I am, but they also see me as super productive, and it's had a knock on effect to my mental health. The idea that I have to achieve more or the same than I did last month to be valid. It's a hard thing to break free of because of course you want to meet your goals, that's why you set them, but you also want to be able to keep pushing yourself, and for a long time, that became the norm.

When I went through that burnout at the beginning of the year, I was terrified that I would lose control of the organisational tools and be unable to get back to where I was, but in fact I found that the best thing to do was to focus on making sure I didn't borrow from tomorrow. So whereas before, if my sticky note tasks were done quickly, I would move onto the next day. Now I don't, I stay within the day's limit and I make sure that I take down time because that's important too.

So whichever way you do it, whether through a bullet journal or through sticky notes or some other method, being organised isn't a bad thing, but you do need to remember that you don't have to do all the things in on day, if you're feeling overwhelmed, take a step back and move forward at your own pace. We all have time. It takes as long as it takes and that's okay.

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The Trials Of An Indie Author: Planning A Release

THE TRIALS OF AN INDIE AUTHOR: PLANNING A RELEASE

It's getting to that time of the year again where I am gearing up to release my next book. 2019 is going to be different than any of the others because I'm not just sticking with my usual two, but adding a third in there as well. It's been started, the process of editing and the rest have been going on since about July time of 2018. I won't bore you with the details of release, though I might update my series on the after process and all that goes into it. It's been a while since I talked about it.

But back to today's topic. How do I, and any other indie author, plan for a release? It feels like a never ending cycle between drafting, rewrites, edits, betas and the rest as you go from finishing one book to the next and getting another bunch ready for release. It can be extremely overwhelming, but that said, it's something that needs to be done. You can't just, like I did in the early days of my career, release a book and call it done. You have to get the word out and you have to actually do a lot of work to get that done. Readers don't come out from the woodwork and randomly start reading your book if they don't know it's there.

So how do you plan a release? What goes into it? Who do you talk to? What steps can you take to help get the word out? And how do you find readers in the first place? Don't worry! I'm gonna go through each of those in turn.

#1- What goes into it?
I'm someone who does a lot of planning. So I make sure that I know what's ahead of me. The deadlines, the steps I need to take and all of that. I also make sure that I know what's expected of me. A lot of the time, you're going to be working with other people. You'll have an editor and cover designer at a minimum, but you'll also have beta readers, a street team, ARC readers and cover reveals and all of that. You need to be sure of what you need to be doing and when to do it by. For me that means breaking it down month-by-month. Marketing has never really been my strong point, so I've used tools like Storiad that gives you a very good marketing tool for your release that you can follow.

But again, a lot of this is going to be down to you to do. You'll know what you need to do and when it has to be done by. Like I said above, I start the publishing process about a year before the book will hit the shelves. And so you need to make sure that you have that time, those steps to meet and all of that. Publishing a book is a whole lot more than just hitting the button on whatever site you use. You want to be spreading the word, building the hype when it comes to the cover, teasers, the pre-order period, the blogs who do ARCs and all of that. It's all a big build up the the special day when your book is out there in the world. And then, if you're like me, you're juggling these different stages with more than one book. So know what you're doing and make sure you have a way to at least keep track of what's been done and what needs doing.

#2- Who do you talk to?
This is going to be talked a little bit more in the fourth question, but rather than repeating myself, I'll just say that a lot of the time you're gonna be talking to bloggers and readers of your genre. The target audience are the ones you want to reach. But before that you'll be wanting to reach out to people who promote your kind of book. Whether that's a YA blogger or a romance blogger, or a fantasy/sci-fi/dystopian etc blogger, that's who you're going to be reaching out to.

Why? Because they're the people who will have the audience you want to reach. They're the people whose readers as going to be your readers. You want to be reaching out to them to help with any number of things from the cover reveal to ARCs to release day blitz to blog tours and the like. These are your people and you're gonna want them to know you have a new book coming out and what it's about.

#3 - What steps can you take to help get the word out?
I've mentioned on the blog before about certain things I do to help spread the word when it comes to a release. These are things like cover reveals, reaching out to bloggers who do things like Bookstagram or Twitter reviews. Taking steps to have Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) so that people can read the book before release and have reviews on Goodreads and Amazon come release day. You can use these moments, these steps, to get the word out to even more people. It's one of the reasons why it's important to have a good cover so that when it's revealed, people more than want to buy your books, and will pre-order it.

These are steps that you can take in the run up to release. That way there's people already aware that you have a new book coming out before it comes close to release day. It's a lot easier to build a buzz slowly, than to do it super fast. Though of course that depends on your platform, for me, who's very much a small fish, it takes time for people to get worked up because I don't have a huge reach.

#4 - How do you find readers in the first place?
Going back to point two, this is where I'll give you my secrets for finding the elusive reader in your target audience. As I mentioned there, there's places like Storiad that not only help you with marketing, but had a massive database that you can use to narrow down the searches for a certain type of blogger. That way you can use their messaging system to make those contacts and go from there. I recommend personalising the messages which may seem like a lot of work, but it's so worth it.

And the second place I recommend is The Book Robin Hoods, which is a massive resource that allows you to connect with readers and authors alike. They have a huge list of bloggers and bookstagrammers that will possibly, help you with your release. It may seem like a lot of work, but you're releasing a book and you want it to go right, so do the work and you'll thank yourself later.

So there we have it, how to plan a release and get the word out about your upcoming book. If you have any tips, feel free to leave them in the comments, but otherwise, good luck with your release!

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Ideas Everywhere: The Start [CC]

Writing always starts with an idea, but what do you do when they're everywhere? #Authortube

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Planning A Series - The Creative Process

PLANNING A SERIES

I did a series of pieces on series and standalones, which can be found here. But I wanted to touch on this again on a piece on its own. Simply because when I've written series before, they've not had an overreaching plot, but instead have been, mostly, able to read as standalones. However in the time since then, I've written a trilogy, and started two new series and so therefore have a little bit more experience with the whole planning of a series process. I will warn you that when it comes to planning - even as a series - I am not big about thinking ahead. I'm a minimal planner and I'm not someone who feels they are always able to plot beforehand, however I have picked up a few tips along the way that I wanted to share.

#1 - START SMALL AND WORK YOUR WAY UP
This is another way of saying that don't get too far ahead of yourself. While you might have an idea for a trilogy of duology, you may find that as you build up that plot and story that it's morphing into a longer series and that's okay. So long as it works for the genre and each story itself is somewhat resolving, then you're doing fine. What I mean by somewhat resolving is there should be a point to the break. It shouldn't be one huge story broken up into smaller chunks, there should be a reason for the end of each book to fall where it does.

#2 - MAKE SURE THE STORY WORKS
Touching a little again on that last point, you need to make sure that each book has a plot of it's own, even if it's a minor one that's mostly overshadowed by the main series arc. This is because the majority of readers want to feel like they've accomplished something when finishing a book is that they've been told a story, not just fed snippets of an upcoming release that will then tell them the rest of the story. This is imperative with a series that has a long reaching arc because otherwise you're gonna have a lot of people feeling like there was little point to the books that came before the main story started.

#3 - MAKE SURE YOU'RE STARTING AT THE RIGHT POINT
Carrying on from that last point again. Sometimes the story starts later than we realise and there's no need for readers to know all that happened in that first "book", it's nothing that can't be explained as exposition or through smaller chunks of text. Sometimes we start writing or planning a story and writing a lot of filler that's actually unneeded. Sometimes you can cut out whole books by just bringing the start to a point where it makes more sense. So be sure that when you're planning, even if it's something that strikes you later on, that you're starting as close to the inciting incident as possible.

#4 - USE THE BEST CHARACTERS TO TELL THE STORY RIGHT
Making sure you have the right character either in first person or from their eyes if you chose a variation of third person. You want it to be the right person to tell the story, and while it may be tempting to have it told from various different points of view, too many can be hard to track and it can sometimes make it more confusing for the reader and harder for them to relate to the characters. It's a balancing act to find the right point of view and also tell the story in the best way you can.

AND FINALLY #5 - SOMETIMES THROWING THINGS AT A WALL WORKS
By this I mean that sometimes you can do that thought-dump where you throw things at the wall and see what sticks. This can be the same for any planning, but especially something that works with a series. I've found some of my best ideas by talking things through with a friend and just letting my ideas lead me. It doesn't always work, and you don't always end up perfect on the first try, but it's something that's worth giving a go. You never know, you might find your answer and then some!

So those are my five tips for planning a series. As I said, the Dying Thoughts series wasn't one that had an over reaching arc, but the Lights Out trilogy, the Invisible series and Cramping Chronicles, all do, and it's something that you learn as you do. So go forth and plan your series, have fun and remember to keep writing!

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Pantsing All The Way - The Creative Process

PANTSING ALL THE WAY

Last week I did a piece about plotting and planning (found here) and this week I've decided to focus on that other side of my writing process, which is the pantsing side. I've always talked about the fact that I'm a hybrid (piece found here, video here) but it's never been something where I've focused solely on the pantsing side of things. I have been writing for almost twenty years and in that time I have found various different ways to plan and outline and get the words on the page. And what I noticed is that where other writers will talk about how they know what's going to happen in this chapter or the other, or they know the ending so clearly. Or that they're able to skip around the timeline and it not freak them out, I don't know the majority of that stuff.

I have a plan, I follow that plan to a point. Of course most people who outline will also add a caveat that the outline isn't made in stone and can be changed, but I find that so long as I have a small grip on the overall plot, the rest of it is made up on the fly. I'll start with a cast of characters and then stop in the middle of a chapter because I've realised that a certain situation is going to happen and for that I'll need x, y and z. I love the way I write and the way I create and while yes, it can make things harder when editing, I find that it doesn't usually make it that hard.

When it comes to rewrites, yes there are going to be things near the beginning of the book where I'm having to change the way a character reacts or how they sound because it can take a good few chapters for me to get their voice right, or because I've decided later on that it would be better to have this happen or that happen earlier so that it makes sense for the climax and ending of the book. And yes, those are a big pain, but I also edit as I go. So if I get to chapter fifteen and realise that I need to change something in chapter two, it gets done. I wouldn't advise a newbie writer do that because it's way too tempting to end up in editing hell where you're so focused on getting the scene perfect that you don't write the rest of the book.

However, I have come to embrace my pantser side. For a long time I thought it was the "wrong" way to write a book, and it's not. There are so many different ways to write and none of them are wrong. You have your own style and your own way of doing things and that's more than okay. Some writers I know write out of sequence. I know I couldn't do that because it would freak me out having to then follow that plan to make sure that later scene made sense. But it works for some people and that's great! But I feel like a lot of people look at those of us who pants and think that we're not doing it right because they personally couldn't do it that way.

That said, I have found that my best ideas come from pantsing. I've also found that if I do extensively outline then I will find myself bored to tears and unable to write the story because I've lost my passion for it. I like keeping things loose, being able to add this twist or that twist and making it all come together in one glorious ending that even I didn't see coming. I love telling stories that way because it keeps me on my toes and allows me to do my best creative work. And I guess part of this piece is to celebrate that, but also to let other hybrids or full on pantsers know that it's okay.

You're not doing something wrong. You're creating your way and while your way may not match mine or anyone elses, that's also okay! Planning isn't for everyone and I think it's beyond amazing that so many different writers approach writing in so many different ways. Think of it this way. There's no way to tell a perfectly unique story because the majority of stories have been told before, but when you're approaching it in a different way, you are telling a unique story because it's the one only you can tell. So remember that, keep pantsing, keep planning and most of all, keep writing!

Good luck!

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Planning & Plotting - The Creative Process

PLANNING & PLOTTING
I've done a few pieces on planning and plotting. It's been something I've talked about on the blog, and also on my Authortube channel. Blog posts are: here, here & here. Videos are here & here. So it's a topic that I've covered, that most writers with advice blogs will cover, but yet I'm doing it again! Why? Maybe it's the fact that it's a new year or just the fact that as I write more, I get better at my own outlining, plotting and planning stages. Who knows, but we're going along for the ride!

So, a few facts before we start. I am a hybrid in that I am both a planner and a panster. I'll discuss pantsing next week, but for now I'll focus on that side of me that needs to have some kind of outline before I can start writing. I've talked about that before too (pieces here, video here) but I feel that it's very important to mention so that everyone knows where I'm coming from and also what tools I've used.

Now if you're someone who wants to plan extensively, that's more than fine, but I don't think this is the blog piece for you. My idea of a plan is writing out days of the week, chapter headings and a few bits and pieces as well as character cards, and then letting myself go off on whatever journey it takes me on. I have some idea of the story before I start. I can't just plot or plan a book that has nothing already thought up. But I do find that I'm slightly less rare that I thought I was. There are a number of people who plan and outline meticulously, and there are those rare few who pants the whole thing, but there are also a whole ton of people who, like me, straddle the two labels. The proper term is plantser but I prefer hybrid because of my Doctor Who roots!

So where do I start? I will, generally, have the ideas phase and then move onto the fleshing out of those ideas. Some call it brainstorming, others call it something else. I picked up the term: thought-dump from Jenna Moreci and I like that one best. I open up a notepad window and I type out everything I can think of that's needed, everything that's inside my brain in terms of the idea and getting it down. I don't have organisation in mind. I'm just typing out everything. This can be from plot points to character descriptions, to even lines of dialogue or prose that I don't want to forget. This stage can take anywhere from a couple of hours, to a week or more. It really depends on how much time I have to devote to it and how much of an idea I have.

When I feel completely dumped out, that's when I'll start creating the chapter plan, which is my version of an outline. I open Word and work out how many chapters. I generally will have the day of the week - I do this because it's nice to have continuity if it's needed, it's not always - and I have the general idea of what the chapter will involve. This can be anything from one word to a short line. And I keep going until I have all the chapters and all the plot points laid out. Then it gets printed and a few other bits and pieces added to it, like page numbers and the day I start and stuff like that.

I do those for a number of reasons, none of which matter in the grand scheme of things, and so we can ignore that. When I've done that and got it all printed out, I move on to character notecards. And these are literally note cards. I did, for a while, think about going digital and got an app where I could type it all out, colour coded and everything. Of course that worked fine, but then I realised I had to scroll to find the ones I needed, and I didn't always write with my tablet/phone nearby. So I'm back to the physical versions and while everything isn't colour-coded, it does mean that I can move things around as the characters become more/less relevant.

So what do I put on those notecards? Characters name (first and last if needed), their physical description and any other information that might be relevant. Like for the Invisible series, I've got notes about what condition they have, when it appeared, and all of that. I also make sure to keep other important info that's happened in previous books on the note card too. This way if I need to check something, I have it all to hand. I learned that while writing the Dying Thoughts series. It was all well and good knowing Tara's description etc off by heart, but sometimes I couldn't remember what she'd done in each book and I needed that continuity!

And once all that is done? Then I'm more than ready to get my backside in my chair and start writing the book! That's just my way of doing things, but I feel like everyone has a slightly different routine and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with outlining, nor pantsing, nor anything in between. You gotta do what works for you and while you may need to experiment slightly to find what fits, it's all about getting the right method and making it your own! Good luck and keep writing!

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