Scapple Of My Eye

I'm a fiend for structure and that means outlines. Every time I've come to ruin in a story it's been in part because of poor planning. A great opening is useless unless I know where I am going. For this reason, I plan my stories like the Normandy invasion.

Short stories and novels entail different processes. A novel is like a backpacking trip -- I need my necessities, a route, and a destination, but the trip is the point and I'm fine with some blank spots on the map. Short stories are more like defusing a bomb -- there's a hook, a twist, and a landing, and the clock is ticking all the time. But in both forms I need an outline.

I've tried several methods, but cards-on-a-board work best for me. I like being able to see my act breaks and the balance of scenes inside an act. Early in the process a physical cork board and halved index cards do it for me. But eventually I need to put that cork board away and transition to a digital format I can quickly call up on my laptop while writing.

I looked into Scrivener, which I'm sure is fantastic, but it's more tool than I need, especially as an outliner. While investigating Scrivener I found another tool from the same developer -- Scapple -- which has worked out perfectly for me.

Scapple is sold as a mind-mapping tool, and it has served me well in that regard. But by adopting uniform bubble shapes and with judicious use of the align tools, I've been able to use it as a digital storyboard, as well:

I work on a laptop with limited screen real estate, so Scapple hasn't been ideal for development and revision of an outline -- I'm still better off being able to take a step back from a real board to get an overview of my work, and moving physical cards works better for me than digital. But when a plot starts to quicken I've had excellent results converting it to Scapple and then having it open in a tab for reference while I write. If I have notes along the way, they are easy to add to the virutal board, and I found it encouraging to change the color of cards as I completed a scene, to mark my progress through my novel.

(Spoliers — I guess — if you read my scene cards).

Check it out here -- there's no commission on that link, I'm just a fan. Let me know if Scapple works for you, and feel free to share your tool favorites in comments, below.