Monday, June 2, 2014

Day 53 - Touchy Feely Plotting

I mentioned being in a stall yesterday.  I think it's because I'm going into a nonverbal phase.  A different part of the brain wants to work.  Probably the math/engineer part.  This is the part of my brain that wants to DO things.

You'd think this would be a time to do art, but that doesn't help, or at least it doesn't help with doing art on a screen.  I want to physically interact with things.

This is the time when I A) create games, B) play games, and C) trot out the old 3 x 5 cards and toys to do plotting.

No matter how much easier it is to create these on a computer and have them all in place, no matter how useless they are once created, I need to scribble by hand on cards and move them around.  I don't need to do this for the story's sake, really.  (I can cut and paste in outlines I've already got.)

It's just that my brain needs to do this.  I need to stop looking at a screen with its constant distance and light, and limited scope, and stop dealing with file organization.  I need to touch things.  I need to push them around and tuck them out of sight without thinking.

If I have a tricky action scene to work out, I need to get out my Disney (and other) figurines and start pushing them around.  (This story, so far, hasn't needed that, though I did realize that Mr. Peabody would be the perfect one for Chef.)

And yeah, aside from expressing a tactile need, it does also spur some out-of-the-box thinking.  I worked out some mushy plot areas.  I still have the denouement to fuss with. Maybe that's where I'll get out the figures.....

See you in the funny papers.

2 comments:

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Oddly, I know what you mean (although I have hardly any left-brain at all...just some shrunken mass). Sometimes I have to work on paper for a day or two. Think that approximates what your need is with the games and cards. Good luck with it!

The Daring Novelist said...

Thanks.

I think my brain is wired weird. I don't seem to have the same left/right dichotomy (but then I'm semi-ambidextrous).