ok so i'm a writer...story boards

story board. i was always wishy washy about this. i understood why some writers liked them. but i also understood it didn't help me very much. it seemed to stall my process more than help me write because while i took the time to carefully outline, i felt that urge that should be taking that time to actually write the manuscript. also, i didn't necessarily know where i was going or where my characters were going to take me, and i was ok with that!

i'm still wishy washy. i don't think it's always that necessary (depending on if you are writing fiction or non, more from experience vs creating a whole new place like hogwarts, or even where you are in the writing process), but i do think it's necessary for me, right now, with this project.

i'm currently writing the sequel to falling stars, and i feel like i've been writing it for like a year. that's probably because i have, but until i had the final version of the first book, i couldn't write the follow up. when one changed, so did the other.

so here i am finally able to write freely, falling stars has already been printed and is on its way to me and my distributor (so no changes are able to be made), and i have been struggling with nailing down this next story. there are so many concrete things i cannot change, and then there are so many new possibilities at my fingertips. too much for my little brain sometimes. too much.

so i thought i'd try a story board. i was desperate. i needed to get it out of my head. i needed to be able to touch it, feel it, erase and start over, see the arc of the story, and all that.

i googled story boards and found a lot of them. some of them were excel spreadsheets with arrows going all which ways and tiny little boxes in random spots. no, thank you. i didn't want to confuse myself even more.

then i found one that was basically boxes. that's all. it was still too small for  the page, and i ended up writing so small that i couldn't get a thought out in one box. but it was the right idea.

here's my template i made for you, if you so desire to have a story board. just print out like five or six depending on what you want, and then number the pages. and boom, your head my just clear up. and if it doesn't...you tried it, right? happy boarding!

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