Hello to all! I’m finally back after my monster vacation. It was SO much fun to see my family, but three weeks away is really crazy. I’m glad to be home and back in my routine!

While I didn’t accomplish as much reading or writing as I wanted to last month, I did keep going in James Scott Bell’s “Plot & Structure”. I’m enjoying the exercises he has at the end of each chapter – they really challenge me to think through my ideas. It’s forcing me to consider my plot from multiple angles to make sure I know why/how things are happening.
One of the things I’ve decided to do is keep a notebook for each story. I’m currently applying his techniques to a manuscript that I’ve already started, and I hope to continue this trend in the future with other novels. I know it’s a little old fashioned. There are many computer programs available that I could use for this sort of thing, but I like to use paper and pen. Maybe that will change if I ever get an iPad, but for now it is the most portable, light weight option that I have.
So how about you – how do you keep your plot lines organized? How to you track your ideas?
[Fun bit of info – when I searched “notebooks” for a photo, I found dozens of pictures of computers and from the movie. I had to specify “mead notebooks” to find what I wanted!]