My original answer to this question was no. But as I’ve been scheming up my latest novel I realized something. I have a full story planned in my head. I knew what I wanted to generally happen and where I wanted the story to go. When I wrote my witch series many years ago, I just spewed out some words, and it happened to make sense with people actually enjoying the story that came to life. I was excited to do that again! The only catch was people change and I certainly had since the last time I attempted to write a novel. The biggest change? My ability to focus and keep my ideas in order.
When I wrote my novels, I would focus entirely on the one story. I always held off thinking of anything else while completing that tale. As I said, I have changed and things are not quite how they used to be. I have trouble focusing on one story or thought at a time these days. Sometimes I even think up ideas for a story that has nothing to do with the story I intend to release. Then the truth of the matter hit me. I don’t need to focus on one thing at a time. I can very easily have more than one creation come to life as the ideas brew in my head. I could even scribble down ideas on a piece of paper and come back to it later. Write it down then simply let it leave my brain…hopefully.
Then I saw my friend, Lucielle Yates shared a TikTok about a thing called a Kanban Board. I was very interested and took this idea to heart. Although rather than a Kanban Board it became more of an outline board. But you know what? I love it! Check it out!
This board has three sections. Column one is labeled as Plans. This is where I start piling up my ideas. These are ideas which I feel hold merit to becoming something more. I also created a bit of a whacko method of organizing my thoughts. (It works for me and that’s what counts). Then in the middle of the board, it is labeled as In Progress. These are the parts of the story I am working on. Maybe they’re chapters I’m writing or maybe characters I still need to clean up. This allows me to keep in check with what I have actually started writing. The final column is labeled as Complete. This section has a stack of characters I have built to appear in my first story as well has a couple chapters I have written. These chapters I feel are done and no longer need my attention. This means I know I can move on from them. I have some personal editors reading through the finished chapters so they can catch matters I may have missed. All this organizing makes for a better story.
Since my thoughts are always going a mile a minute, I figured an outline would be the best way to organize myself. Every time I sat down at the computer to type out the outline I was dreading it. Following my friend allowed me to stumble upon and build up an idea that helps me keep myself focused and organized. Not to mention, the board is out in the open so every time I walk by it, I think about the novel I want to write. No way for me to forget about the work I want to complete.
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