And as the seasons change, so to does the focus of our work sessions. The majority of our sub-zero, knee-deep-snow-filled winter was spent in the auxiliary writing cave (aka the family room). Along with delicious hot beverages, a wood fire, and cuddling on the sofa, we indulged in copious brainstorming sessions. We filled an entire steno pad with notes before we were done. We used our brand new Apple TV to view some interesting research materials (and binge on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt). We talked and talked and talked. And talked.

After all of that, we were finally ready to lay the whole plot out in a colorful grid formation that we call the Plot Rainbow. We’ve talked about the Rainbow before, but here’s a brief refresher: Each major character is assigned a colored column in the grid. We proceed chronologically through the plot, filling in what we know of each characters’ actions on coordinating note paper. Each beat gets its own row.

Here’s what our first pass with Son of Music Novel looked like:

(Please excuse the dog hair. Lady Marzipan is an olympic-calibre shedder.)

This plot has a large number of beats, which made the Rainbow particularly long. We laid it out in the hallway so we would have enough room. That probably looks like a lot of story beats, but we can assure you that they don’t all warrant scenes. Often one scene per row will cover the participation of all the characters. Other times, we make a card to note what a character is doing off-page. It helps us keep track of where everyone is and what they’re up to, even if it doesn’t merit inclusion in the final story.

We spent an evening carefully combing through that first Rainbow, making notes about points that were still vague, or questions that were still unanswered. Then we retired to the auxiliary writing cave and filled in all of the missing information.

When it was time to lay out the rainbow again, we abandoned the hallway. Lady Marzipan is far, far too helpful, what with all the sniffing and tail wagging and walking all over everything, and it was much easier to just shut her out of the room. Conveniently, the auxiliary writing cave is just barely wide enough to contain the entirety of the New and Improved Rainbow. We added columns for a couple of secondary characters (bright pink and yellow there at the right of the pic). We added a few rows where we clarified some of the action. Throughout we edited cards and sometimes even replaced them with updated information. A few holes were filled in.

The New and Improved Rainbow gives a much clearer picture of the story we will write. It even held up to scrutiny when we gave it a thorough going-over.

When we stack it all up, it strains the capacity of the largest binder clip we currently have in the house.

When Jen typed it all up into a semi-coherent prose outline/synopsis it ran 8 pages. Single spaced.

Next week we’ll talk about turning that pile of colorful paper and 8-page document into an actual outline.