Stationary Is My Saviour

Once the workbook was filled in we had a story all planned out with the following written down: genre, setting, character profiles, goals, obstacles, consequences, stakes, themes, character arcs, plot twists, foreshadowing, an opening line, dramatic scenes, inciting events, and an ending. Alongside this we had a logline, story snippet, and story overview. All the ingredients for a successful and engaging story. Now we had to put them together.

This is the part where I expected to go around in circles singing Hakuna Matata in my head and overthinking everything I’d planned so far. However, the system we used absolutely clicked with me.

The index card system involves putting everything you have on index cards and mixing and matching them. It’s based on a system used by screenwriter Lance Dustin Black who explains it in this video.

Now I am a huge fan of stationary. I love a new pen and a clean notebook. Now my desire to colour code things was about to come in handy like never before.

Everything was a card. Character Profile? Card. Backstory? Card. Scene? Card. Event? Card. Slowly every single scene I’d put to paper in my workbook had its own card. Attached to these were cards with details on character profiles, backstories, location descriptions. Any other information I’d need to use to write that scene.

The beauty was once everything was logged. I arranged the scenes in what I thought was the order and then read them through. I inevitably realised I’d muddled myself up along the way. Some things were out of order, some seemed redundant, and there were also some lovely gaping lot holes. It was enough to make me panic, but the system accounts for this.

Useless scenes? Rip up the card. Scene in the wrong place? Physically move the card on your visual timeline. Got a plot hole? Add in a card with a scene that fills it.

So many things are done digitally now, and in fact you can sort of do this digitally in some programmes but for me the physical cards were amazing. I could move them, see them and change them. I didn’t have to zoom and scroll. Everything was in front of me, spread across the desk.

These cards would enable me to start writing my story.