Plotting Help

Now that NaNoWriMo is almost at a close, you probably don't need this tool - unless you write during the "off-season," or are a struggling college student, like me.

I'm in the middle of a two-month class aimed at teaching students to write a novella - a ~100 page story, which we'll self-publish at the end of class.

I found myself in an existential plot crisis. Even though I had a strong start, I couldn't figure out where this novella was going. I needed some serious plot help. I Googled "plot diagram" and landed on this interactive tool.

Once you enter in your name and title, it presents a "mountain." You can use the slider bar at the bottom to change where the peak is (allowing for more or less rising and falling action). 

You enter in an event and a description, and drag and drop it to where you want it on the "mountain." Downside: once you drag that event, the only part that will be visible is the event title. You can't get back to see or edit your event description.

Hitting print will allow you to print or save the final version, but you can add events after you "print." Once you start over or navigate off the page, your work will be lost, so if you want to keep it, print it. This is what it'll look like:

Happy writing!

Edit: I found another interesting downside to this working aid: The events are numbered on the printed page as you entered them. So, using the example above, if you entered in Problem 1, then the Major Crisis, and then went back and entered in Problem 2, the bottom of your printout will list them as:
1. Character Intro
2. Problem 1
3. Major Crisis
4. Problem 2
5. Resolution 1

It's still a useful working aid... it's just not perfect.

Resolutions?

I know it isn't even Christmas yet, but I saw a discussion on Ravelry that got me to thinking. I'll definitely go post a list of my own 10 projects in 2010 on my knitting blog, but for the rest of my life... Wait. Does anyone really need resolutions? I mean, you can't improve something that's already perfect, right? ;)

Ok, ok, seriously. There's the normal, "lose 10 lbs, be less than $$$ in debt, start working on my degree" kinds of stuff. And yes, most of that is going on my list.

What are resolutions but little baby goals? A motivational speaker in Highschool once told us (and I happened to be awake for this one!) that we should set goals and keep a list of these goals somewhere visible. I got the same message from a class I took as an adult, and we use goal sheets at work to aid in planning our careers.

Merriam-Webster defines goal as the end toward which effort is directed, but most of the sites that pop into a search for "goal" talk about timelines, and indeed, every experience I've had where goals were mentioned, timelines were also brought up.

In my job, as in most jobs I think, my boss has a list of expectations for me as an employee. After 6 months, we do a check-up to see how things are going, and 6 months after that there's an evaluation. During this process my goal-sheet is also reviewed. My goal-sheet is like, four pages long. It's lengthy, cumbersome, and not generally something I look forward to reviewing or tweaking. Definitely not something I could (or would even want to) post somewhere visible.

I think the S.M.A.R.T goal model is sound. My mother brought this concept up to me the other day, and I checked it out online. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. I see that, and my list-loving brain gets all excited. SMART just screams, "make a nice little chart for each goal, and arrange it according to time-line!" I may have to, but then you run into the cumbersome and not-postable problem. Maybe the happy medium is the pretty little chart, periodic review (reminders in my calendar that pop up automatically?), and a very abbreviated list somewhere visible.

So, what to put on this list? This bears thought. And I'm open to suggestions. I'll even welcome the wise-ass comments. Though, "be nicer" is not specific, measurable, or timely, and might not be attainable or realistic. Just sayin'.