First Draft Map

This is a map of the first draft of my new writing project.  It’s a realistic fiction story with a first person male narrator.  I’m really excited about it.  I’ve written various chunks of it over the course of the last 9 months, with large lapses of time in between due to revision on other writing projects.  I decided I needed a way to keep track of what parts were written and what parts were just in my head.

Here is my very low-tech solution.  Each pink sticky has a brief synopsis of what happens in that chapter.  In the bottom left hand corner of the sticky is a series of initials that tells me which file I can find it in on my computer (due to serious computer failures, I have files all over the place in various word formats).  I also put whether the chapter is in past or present tense.  I went back and forth a little bit on this initially and now I need to correct it so it’s all the same.  Each orange sticky is an idea I have for a future chapter or a place that the story needs to go, even if I’m not sure how it’s going to get there.

I really should call it my “no excuses” map.  As in, I can no longer put off writing because I need to make the map.  And now that I’ve blogged about it….