Yes, I'm back at work on the Novel!

This post over at Author Jennifer Griffith's website got me back to working on my novel, Spinster's Folly, this week. Thank you so much, Jen!

What I've been doing is printing out each scene description on a small slip of paper. Wait. I have to explain that.

My fabulous writing software, yWriter5 (be sure to explore the entire software inventory when you go over there), lets me print out the descriptions of each scene on "Scene Cards" of a size I specify.

I could have used colored card stock during the printing, but since I'm using more than one card color for my project, that is, one colored card per character who has the viewpoint in the scene, I just printed the information on plain white sheets of paper. Then I cut the "scenes cards" into oblongs and affixed them to colored index cards: pink for Marie, orange for Bill, white for C.G., yellow for Rod, and green for Julia.

Now that I've accomplished that, you're probably asking "Why?"

I am a very visual person. I also need to get off the computer once in a while and "see" the larger picture laid out on my wall or floor, as the case may be.

There are gaps in my narrative flow, and I need to fill them in. Having one card for each scene helps me see what information or event I've covered. Since the visual cue of the colored index card tells me whose viewpoint is "seeing" the scene, I can also check for character balance.

The first five chapters show a preponderance of Marie's viewpoint.

Yes, it's Marie Owen's story, but there IS a supporting cast of characters, and I need them to do their job effectively; sometimes, out of Marie's sight. If I'm seeing an overabundance of pink cards laid out on my floor in any one chapter or section of the novel, I know there are other scenes to be written. Maybe. That depends on if material seen only from the viewpoint of that other character is missing. I won't necessarily add a scene for another character just because his or her viewpoint is missing from a chapter. The job of each scene is to advance the story.

So, that's what I've been doing yesterday and today, checking my scene structure visually. This step is an important one, even for a mostly pantser-writing-style novelist.

In other news, I've changed a character's name. The man formerly called C. G. Alderson or C. G. Atherton, is now named C. G. Thorne. And that's final.

I think.