The White Lily (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thewhitelily) wrote2007-06-22 12:25 am
thewhitelily) wrote2007-06-22 12:25 am
Entry tags:
Ode to a Spreadsheet
How did anyone write in the days before spreadsheets?
If I were to print this out in eight point font and put it up on the corkboard above my desk, it would take eighteen A4 pages. Sweeeeet.Admitedly, six of them would be more like third-pages, but I'm claiming them anyway.
Since I shrunk it down so much, a rough explanation might be necessary: Chapters go down the left, one row each. Starting from the left, they have the number, the chapter title, the summary, then known carpet-gnawing bugs. Across the top go all the plot threads and directly under their titles, any specifics I've worked out need to be added but am not yet certain where. Each cell where a plot thread appears in a chapter is shaded the darker grey, while each cell where it's merely mentioned is the lighter grey. Text is red where I'm talking about what should be there, black if it's what is there.
So now I have a bird's eye view of the plot, the pacing, the foreshadowing, and the backstory. I've assigned proper plot threads to all the characters, concepts, and other bits and pieces that were important.
This means I can trace all my major and minor plot threads forward and backwards, spotting connections and parallels between previously unrelated bits and tying them into each other and the backstory. I can skip from here to there as my brain storms over the plot and slide ideas straight into place so that they're in just the right spot for if/when I want to write them. I can make sure that each individual character has their own story that makes sense from beginning to end, no matter how minor. I can keep an eye on each chapter to make sure there's enough stuff happening in it - and if there's not, find something appropriate that could do with a bit more meat and tie it in. I can keep an eye on threads that go too long without cropping up again, those that appear too late in the piece or have a twist that might not be adequately prepared, and those that don't seem to be related at all to anything else and need to be totally cut.
Aaaaaah. From here on, editing should be all downhill! :) Well, maybe not. But making decisions about what needs to go where will certainly be a whole lot easier!
So do I rock almost as much as Excel? Or am I a neurotic control freak with no artistic soul? I'm thinking both!
If I were to print this out in eight point font and put it up on the corkboard above my desk, it would take eighteen A4 pages. Sweeeeet.
Since I shrunk it down so much, a rough explanation might be necessary: Chapters go down the left, one row each. Starting from the left, they have the number, the chapter title, the summary, then known carpet-gnawing bugs. Across the top go all the plot threads and directly under their titles, any specifics I've worked out need to be added but am not yet certain where. Each cell where a plot thread appears in a chapter is shaded the darker grey, while each cell where it's merely mentioned is the lighter grey. Text is red where I'm talking about what should be there, black if it's what is there.
So now I have a bird's eye view of the plot, the pacing, the foreshadowing, and the backstory. I've assigned proper plot threads to all the characters, concepts, and other bits and pieces that were important.
This means I can trace all my major and minor plot threads forward and backwards, spotting connections and parallels between previously unrelated bits and tying them into each other and the backstory. I can skip from here to there as my brain storms over the plot and slide ideas straight into place so that they're in just the right spot for if/when I want to write them. I can make sure that each individual character has their own story that makes sense from beginning to end, no matter how minor. I can keep an eye on each chapter to make sure there's enough stuff happening in it - and if there's not, find something appropriate that could do with a bit more meat and tie it in. I can keep an eye on threads that go too long without cropping up again, those that appear too late in the piece or have a twist that might not be adequately prepared, and those that don't seem to be related at all to anything else and need to be totally cut.
Aaaaaah. From here on, editing should be all downhill! :) Well, maybe not. But making decisions about what needs to go where will certainly be a whole lot easier!
So do I rock almost as much as Excel? Or am I a neurotic control freak with no artistic soul? I'm thinking both!
no subject
Yes, that's exactly the process with the Threes. As I think of things that should be Threed, I add on columns for them and note down the places where they're Threeing. Sometimes even minor Threes then sprout lives of their own and develop extra dimensions of other Threes, which in a story this big, I won't always give an entirely separate column. eg. one columns that's already been Threed here looks like a five, because there's three of one thing and three of another, but the third mention of each is shared as the major revelation scene. There's also columns for things that were always going to be more pervasive than a simple three - major supporting characters, for example, who are better considered as a whole even if they're always going to have more than three appearances/facets/significances to the story.
In general, the more crucial the plot thread, the closer to the left it'll be and the more separate threes it'll have contained in it - but if it sprouts too many threes to see at a glance, or an internal set develops a particularly close affinity with another thread as well, I'll separate it out into another column next to it.
And yeah, it's a totally controlled way of writing. It's partly because my brain isn't big enough to hold the whole story at once without being paralysed by too many possibilities, so I slice it into small enough pieces to be able to work with each part as a separate whole. But since I also do up tables for drabbles, I'm thinking it's mostly my inner control freak expressing herself. :)
[/oververbosity, but what did you expect when you brought up Three?]