Ideas and Index Cards

Here I am, skipping whole months again. I took a bit of a break from writing. I didn't even do Camp NaNoWriMo in July.

But what I did do, was buy a corkboard.

I very much wanted to lay out all the pieces of Cold Blooded where I could see them all at once. So I could see the holes. Act 1 has only a few holes where I need to fit some other plot-relevant stuff. Act 2 and 3 are basically:

• A couple of scenes that go together
• A giant hole
• A couple more scenes
• Another hole

You can see that I don't have most of the second half on the corkboard yet. Partially because I haven't gotten them on there yet, and partially because of all the holes.

And my first draft is no help, because I literally just skipped from one major plot point to the next so I didn't waste time trying to think of what happened in between. But now I need to know, and I have no idea.

The trick is that the things that fill the holes have to further the plot. They can't just be filler or random things that happen.

This is where subplots come in, I think. My main character needs other goals to work toward. I think?

I mean, there's a point on the board that seems like it's just some fun side plot stuff involving a local event, but it does actually tie back to the main plot. So maybe I just need more things like that. There's a small possibility that I actually know what I'm doing. Very small.

But there's a big difference between knowing what sort of thing I need and knowing what specific thing I need. I guess I'll have to think about it some more, do some brainstorming.

I'll see you… sometime. Let's face it, I can't stick to a schedule anymore.