Posted on by JoshLud

Storyboarding vs. Writing Blind

There are many ways to write a novel and each novelist has their own way of plotting their story. The secret is testing.

Writing Blind

When I wrote LETTERS TO A DANDELION, I wrote blind. I had nothing but the next two to three future scenes plotted out in my head and my characters took the story there. Many of the greats, Stephen King for one, write in this manner. They allow their characters to pull the story along and give them free-rein.

The issue I encountered with using this method is that I hit quite a few stumbling blocks. I didn’t consider this “writers block”. I considered it as poor planning. I wanted to write the next sentence, paragraph, or chapter but I was lost. I was stuck at 30,000 words for a week, blindly stumbling along. Eventually, events formed themselves and my characters spoke to me once more.

I do not dispute this method. I actually love it. Writing blind kept me interested and intrigued for the next crisis and was anxious to see what my characters would do next. In this sense, I knew my readers would feel the same way.

Storyboarding

For my next novel, tentatively named THE KNIGHT PARADOX, I wanted to test another method; storyboarding. Storyboarding plots out the entire novel, broken up by chapter, before writing the novel itself.

Here is an example (I use Microsoft PowerPoint to storyboard).

There are many benefits to this method, namely completing the synopsis before completing the novel. As it stands, my plan is to complete the storyboard, branch a synopsis from there, and then fill out the novel.

Many novelists dispute this method, claiming the characters are “destined” for an end, rather than forming their own. I understand this point, but my counter argument is I’m really not taking anything away from the characters. I still have to creatively plot the novel from the start and my characters are already a part of that. As I write the novel, I put the characters in a tree (crisis), throw stones at them (plot complications), and then bring them down (direction). The plot points are already established, so I’m not taking anything away from the character, they will bring themselves out by emotion and reaction.

Again, there is no right way to write a novel and everyone has their own methods. I cannot argue storyboarding to be better for me yet, because I am far from completion. As it stands, I’m enjoying this method because of its structure.

Related articles:

Traditional Plot Story Layout

Fiction Writing Plot Development Storyboards

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Filed under: The Art | Tagged: author, words, writer, writing |