I've been procrastinating and struggling with editing my Tash and Kev plot for bloody ages now (18 months if I count the period where I was homeless and had nowhere to write). I've tried using cut up bits of paper, post-its and all sorts to work out how to rearrange the plot and where to add new bits in, etc. (This is all new to me as I'm so used to focusing on characters, rather than plot.)

Anyway, I've just come up with a great way. I've been using Excel and it's a revelation! I've been typing each plot event in a different cell, going downwards as columns. I've used the next column along to write any notes. I can move things around and add and delete sections as I like!

There may be other more experienced plotters than me who've been using spreadsheets like this for years. I may have even read about people doing this before on here, but somehow it went over my head. But I just want to share how this has suddenly given me a new lease of life with Tash and Kev. I feel like a writer again!

So ... does anyone else use spreadsheets for plotting or have any relevant tips?

Cath

I've tried most "office" software at one time or another. I found MS Access the best, as you can use it as a conventional spreadsheet but also write "reports" that print out chronologically or biographically, based on the database. But the outline facility in Word is also good. I used different colours / fonts for characters, plot points etc.

Michael

One technique I use (cribbed from Holly Lisle's site.. check it out, there is a lot of advice there) is with MS Powerpoint.

For example I will write a title for the scene as the slide header. Then bullt point events or character actions for that scene.

On the view page, look at all of the slides and move them about in different orders to see how the plot works or does not work. This is not everyone's cup of tea for plotting but it can help.

David

I'm not very good with Excel but have been using it for my word count. I like your idea and might try it, actually! Thanks, Cath!

Deb

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David, instead of powerpoint slides some people use post-it notes or filing cards, don't they? Same thing, but more old-fashioned! :)

Deb

Cath - a helpful idea is to create additional columns for each of the main characters. In the leftmost column will be the event itself. In one or more of the character columns will be how that particular character is involved in, affected by or developed by that event. You can then read down the column to get a chronological picture of that particular character's journey through the book. Don't create too many columns though, or the spreadsheet becomes unwieldy. Using a small font and landscape orientation you can get four or five columns of sensible width onto a page.

Chris

I've just re-done the entire plan of my novel, which I've never done before, and it's made me really think about the usefulness of doing this kind of thing.

FWIW, I do a spreadsheet by hand - I use Excel to print me a grid, but fill it in in pencil. I think Deb's suggestion is a good one. My columns are

- one for the main story (which is what's having to be re-jigged in a big way, without disturbing the others)
- one for what we find out about the past events she's unravelling (smaller re-jig)
- one each for the two rather more episodic historical narratives (untouched), which are of a brother and sister so they're telling different parts of the same story
- one for the thematics links between the threads (untouched, need strengthening)
- one for a list of important objects which the main narrative is collecting (new stuff).

I also have a thin column with the chapter number, where I note the current word-count and number of pages. I don't update these often, but it gives me a reference point if I feel it's changed drastically and want to check. Oh, and the chapters are bracketed together to show the Parts, complete with note of the title and epigram. Amazing how much information you can fit in one chart! The whole thing covers 2½ landscape sheets, sellotaped together so it unfolds.

What everybody's suggestions have in common, it seems to me, whether it's index cards or Powerpoint or spreadsheet, is setting out all the stuff in our heads in visual form, to be glared at and rearranged. I went through the novel to make the new plan, but laying it out like this made it much easier to see how many 'slots', as it were, I had for fitting the new bits of the plot into, and where there were opportunities without upsetting things to add various little bits I'd already decided I needed.

Emma

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Chris, apologies, I meant you, not Deb!

I use MindMaps (courtesy of MindJet.com) for planning absolutely everything. Spreadsheets are too HARD!

Zoe

I'm really hopeless with technology and hate the idea of doing this spreadshet on a computer - filling the cells in, I mean. But - if some kind person could send me - and not just me but other technophobes, I'm sure - a spreadsheet, so I could fill the bits in by pencil as Emma suggested - I'd be truly grateful.

I don't use a spreadsheet, but got an excellent tip from Eve on here, and that is to use index cards.

It's brilliant. I have a box of index cards - blue ones for characters, and white ones for chapters. You can write loads of detail on cards for each chapter, and lay them all out in front of you so that you can see them easily and pick up which ones you want.

It works really well.

Katerina x

The benefits of using a spreadsheet on screen is that you can alter the size of each individual cell to suit whatever’s in it. So, if you're not going to do that, index cards that you can physically move around would be a much more flexible method.

An alternative that I use sometimes when I'm floundering in confusion is post-it notes and the nearest wall. You can use different coloured pens or highlighters (on the notes, not the wall for each thread or POV or character, whatever is easiest for you. There’s something about having the physical things in your hand that makes the process very real.

Dee

Jem, I don't use the computer for anything you couldn't do with ruler and pen. Remember those charts you used to make to cross off the days to the end of term? (Or was that just me?). It suits me to have one thin and five fat columns across for the different threads, and as many down as I have chapters, and they work out about square...

Emma

I use index cards too, Katerina. I write scenes down then shuffle them around to see if they would work in a better oreder and as I go along I add time and character information. I also use post its. But I just need something I can see in one glance - as Dee says - for the time frame, which, when you're writing crime you have to keep a tight grip on.

I think I'm going to get my husband to design something for me. My problem is I am completely unvisual. I cannot imagine what such a chart should look like. (This having no visual powers means I have to do a lot of cheating in my writing so that readers don't discover it!)

I'm glad the system still works for you Katerina !

I also have a program called "Write it Now" that you can download from the web. It costs about £20 I think but it has a brilliant section where you upload the events of your story. You can put in the dates and even the times each thing happens. Then you can look at it in Chart view where it turns it into a bar chart running down the page. If there's a discrepancy with the timings that bar looks far too long and you can click on it and see what you've done.

I had so many incidents and my story had to span 6 weeks and fit logically into it that I found this a godsend. Otherwise they might have spent 8 hours doing something that should only have taken 5 minutes.

It also has character relationship charts and a few other helpful things. I prefer to use word for the writing but for the events chart it's really paid for itself.

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Oh and it's here if you want to look :

http://www.ravensheadservices.com/about.php

Jem, you know what the kind of 'family calendar' looks like, or the Dodo Pad range of diaries? Family members heading the columns across the top, days down the side so that you can see that Johnnie's ballet class clashes with Jemima's army cadets on Thursday, but on Friday the only thing happening is that it's the au pair's birthday? That's the kind of thing mine ends up looking like.

Emma

LOL Emma - Army cadets indeed!! I think I've seen these calendars but always avoided them because of the associations I have with them - au pair's birthday indeed!

Eve - going to look at that link now!