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Plotter or pantser, this game is fun!
There are authors who plot and authors who jump straight into writing their novels. Neither approach is better than the other, but I like the planning without planning model the best.
It’s a game you play with your novel or ideas for your novel’s scenes.
It’s also quite simple, and you are guaranteed a win!
To plan without planning, you play a 'card game.' 😊
There aren’t too many rules. You can play multiple times, and there are no losing hands. Technically, there aren’t your typical card hands at all, but stick with me.
To play you need:
3x5 index cards (You do not want the big index cards for this game.)
A permanent marker (You can have more than one color if you want!)
Tape (If you want to place the cards on the wall instead of a table or floor.)
An idea for your next or first novel and scenes ideas. Or you can have a complete novel that needs a bit of help to make great.
How to play:
1. With the marker color of your choice, write on each card a few words or a sentence about a scene you want in the book.
Note: If you already have a manuscript, write down one sentence for each plot point or scene. Use only the scenes that move the plot forward, leave character information and growth scenes out for now.
Examples:
· Ivy finds a doll and takes it home.
· Rachael curses the doll.
· Ivy sees a psychologist.
· Rachael puts the doll on a playground.
· Ivy takes a knife and walks through the house.
· Ivy confronts Rachael.
· Paranormal detectives scan Ivy’s house.
· Ivy has a bad dream.
In this order, they may make sense, or they may need to be shifted around. That’s the point of this game, to find an order that keeps the tension high and keeps readers entertained.
Note: Make about thirty cards this way.
2. Put them in a box or bag and shake them up.
3. Pull out the cards one by one and lay them on the floor or stick them to the wall in the order you pull them out in.
Does the order make sense to you?
Does the order create a sense of anticipation?
Let’s look at our example from above.
· Ivy sees a psychologist.
· Ivy finds a doll and takes it home.
· Rachael puts the doll on a playground.
· Rachael curses the doll.
· Ivy confronts Rachael.
· Ivy has a bad dream.
· Ivy takes a knife and walks through the house.
· Paranormal detectives scan Ivy’s house.
4. You can move a few scenes around to make it make sense. Or you can reshuffle and try again.
Some books have the end scene at the beginning, then go back and show how that came about.
Some books have the middle scenes first.
There is no one right way to write a novel.
Back to our example.
· Ivy sees a psychologist. – Could open with this scene. It would start the suspense early.
· Ivy finds a doll and takes it home. – Could be a flashback or something Ivy says in her session with the psychologist.
· Rachael puts the doll on a playground. – Could be from Rachael’s perspective and create suspense for why she left the doll.
· Ivy has a bad dream. – Good lead up to more frightening events.
· Ivy takes a knife and walks through the house. – Good escalation of what’s happening to Ivy.
· Rachael curses the doll. – Rachel’s perspective – Could be in a great spot to let the reader in on why, without letting the characters in on it.
· Paranormal detectives scan Ivy’s house. – Reveals the doll is causing the problem
· Ivy confronts Rachael. – Climax
See how the game can spark creativity?
I may like chronological order, but this game showed me that if I put things in a different order, more suspense and tension could be created with a different timeline. It also created an opportunity to write the story from two characters’ perspectives.
5. After you’ve decided on what order you want the scenes in, then you can make more cards with ideas for how you can bridge one plot point to the next.
6. Place your new plot-point cards within the structure to help you refine your storyline and timeline.
7. Add the characters’ growth points on new cards and place them in the order that fits the order you chose for your plot. This will help you with matching your character’s arc with the order of plot points you chose.
8. You win!
I would have shown you how steps 5-7 look like, but that would make this post ridiculously long. 🙄
This game is actually really fun and helps create new ways of viewing storytelling.
And you always win! What’s not to love?
Now that you have all of that planning, but not planning done, you can get into or back into writing your amazing novel.
Try it out and tell me what you think of this method of planning but not planning!
Happy Writing and Revising!
Kristin Noland
Speculative and Crime Fiction Ghostwriter and Editor
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