I’m making my way through my edits. So far I’ve gotten through Chapters 1-6. I’m almost through Act I of the three-act structure.
My current editing process is:
- Read through the scene
- Note what’s missing or needs to change
- Write out a scene card for each in the chapter
- Actually make the edits
- Read through it again to make sure it does what I want
My scene cards are pretty simple since I’m using them to keep track of specific beats.
- Motive: What the scene should accomplish or what the character is going into the scene believing.
- Conflict: Self-explanatory, it’s the main conflict of the scene or what will build conflict going forward.
- Resolution: What has changed with the character by the end of the scene or how will they react because of it.
I also name the scene and put in the corner what Act, scene, and plot beat it’s in. (I also like to color coordinate the Acts so I can see the spread of chapters in each act.)
The board starts to look like this:
There are some really creative storyboarders out there. Some people have color-coded cards for each character, plot beat, or act. I’m still new to this way of plotting and editing so mine are very basic. If you have any tips I’d love to hear them! Until then, I’m going to try and clean up this board a bit and keep going.
As I continue to learn more about storyboarding, I’m thinking about how I can incorporate it into my drafting more than my editing. No matter what it’s been extremely helpful.
Happy Writing!
Rachel
Subtle Stories 