Discussion (6)¬

1. ChayaFradle says:

   June 16, 2011 at 6:51 pm

   Scrivener 30 day free trial didn't work out for me.

2. ChayaFradle says:

   June 9, 2011 at 2:29 pm

   Thank you for the question. I, too, am learning from Darrin Bell's methodologies.

3. Darrin Bell says:

   June 9, 2011 at 11:05 am

   Thanks! That's quite a compliment. I'm tempted to say "it's all in my head," but the truth is I need some help. So I use a program called Scrivener, that has a storyboard screen. It looks like a cork board, and lets me arrange storylines graphically on "note cards" tacked to the board. I have a different note card for each week-long chapter, and I can move them around as much as I need to to change the sequence of events. This week's notecard is titled "Friending Sasha" and when I click on the card, it expands and gives me room to write the scripts.

   I've got notecards on that corkboard that briefly outline storylines for the next two years. And I have a text file that I wrote back in 2003, when Candorville began, that outlines the major turning points in the strip over the next 50 years (42, now). For instance, one of the characters is scheduled to spend the whole decade of the 2030s in jail, and it may or may not be the character we'd assume it'll be.

   But the outline's not set in stone. Until it's published, I can always change my mind.

   • Mellaril says:

     June 9, 2011 at 12:34 pm

     Thanks. I was curious as to how you put it all together and make it flow so well.

   • Michael Ventrella says:

     June 16, 2011 at 6:12 pm

     I do something similar for my novels, but geez, I don't have to wait 30 years to see them completed!

     • Darrin Bell says:

       June 16, 2011 at 8:31 pm

       On the bright side, I don't like to leave things unfinished, so I can't die for at least 42 more years.