DIY Plot Board

Is anyone else doing NaNoWriMo this year?

Writing a novel in thirty days . . . I can do this . . . Mum, buy the chocolate . . .

Anyway, today I’m going to be showing you how to make a plot board. Writers: you need to make one of these. Seriously, it’s really helpful.

So here is my lovely plot board. All you need to make one is a poster board, a Sharpie, and Sticky Notes.

You may be wondering, Why do I need one of these again? Well, my dear, the answer to that is  . . . um, I’m just going to tell you what you can use a plot board for.

Write important bits of your plot on your Sticky Notes. Then put the Sticky Notes onto your plot board in the order you’re going to write them. Once you see some of your plot written out like this, you can sort of visualize your novel, savvy? And you can move the order of events around easily.

At the top of my plot board, I wrote Project, followed by a Sticky Note with the (code) name of my novel on it . . . so I can remember which story the plot is for :)

The area before the word Project is for little notes about the story that aren’t part of the plot. Like who is in your main character’s “gang,” even if your MC doesn’t like half of the people.

After the Sticky Note with my story’s name on it is where I put pieces of the plot that don’t have a place yet. For example, I know that my character named Clara will break her wing (see yellow note) during the final battle, but I don’t when this will take place. Until I figure that out and what events lead up to this, that Sticky Note will remain in the Homeless Plot Things section of my board.

A plot board is so easy to create, and it’ll make plotting a tiny bit easier. I really hope that you’ll make a plot board of your own!

~Loren