[writing log] September 2024, Part 1 of 2

World-building by hand, timeline by spreadsheet, and a series of nearly unintelligible mind maps.

In September last year I seemed to be the embodiment of an oscillating fan, twisting back and forth from doubt to confidence. Because the first half of this month is a little thin on craft stuff, I’ve added a number of my H4H planning documents.

Before JK Rowling came out as a TERF, I once saw a single-page of handwritten notes on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and I analyzed that thing through a microscope. There’s just something about handwritten plotting that’s like cocaine to me. If you’re the same way, you’ll enjoy my illegible brainstorming peppered throughout the month of September.

Everything in italics is an interjection or update from my present-day self.

If you want to get caught up, here’s August’s writing log:

[writing log] August 2024

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Craft concept & process index:

• world-building doc — 9/2 — An example of my world-building brainstorming method.

• timeline spreadsheet — 9/3 — An example of how I create timelines in a spreadsheet.

• point of telling — 9/3 — At what point during the story (or after it) the narrator is narrating from. I go into more detail in one of my tumblr workshop posts.

• pomera drafting — 9/5 — A relatively new step I added to my writing process. I bought a distraction-free writing device from Japan last year that is really just a txt file and a keyboard. I’ve found that I can write a lot on it, but it’s all very messy. So in my drafting process, it’s a step before the down draft.

• web of want — 9/10 — A brainstorming process to figure out character motivation.