Story Sheets vs. Plot Pointd

[Ian Bee]

Story Sheets vs. Plot Points.

 

 

Okay, Ive got Storyist working on iPhone, iPad, and iMac. Syncing all good.

 

Seems like Ill get the hang of most things, except for one

 

Story Sheets and Plot Points.

 

I use a massive pin board, which sits behind me, and map out my main points. On the pins, I label them with a labelling machine, then have corresponding paper index cards which I expand on.

 

So, do my index cards become my Story Sheets, or my Plot Points?

 

I am obviously having difficulty in deciding which ones to use.

 

Can someone please, outline how they differentiate between the two, so I can get my head around this system better, and make FULL use of the cross referencing of this program?

 

Thank you

 

Ian

[marguerite]

Hi, Ian, and welcome to the forums,

This is really a question of what works best for you. The two functions overlap, but they do differ a bit.

 

Scene/Section Sheets help you track the individual segments of your manuscript. They include basics (what is the conflict in this scene?) and specifics (this scene shows plot point X or character development point Y). They also let you specify the point-of-view character for each scene, which can be helpful. They are more over-arching.

 

Plot points offer ways to track story events, either to create an outline or to see if you have followed all the steps of, say, the Hero's Journey. They need not correspond exactly to the scene sheets.

 

I tend to make minimal use of plot points myself because I am not by heart an outliner. I am much more likely to use character development points and setting sheets in conjunction with section (often chapter) sheets. I keep plot points for those emergencies when I have painted a character into a corner and need to get him/her out in a hurry or for general uses like after-the-fact testing of whether my plot hits all the needed beats. But other people swear by them, so I think it depends what kind of writer you are.

Best,

Marguerite

[Ian Bee]

Thank you Marguerite.

 

This sort of makes sense to me now. As a plotter and very mechanical - visual person, perhaps I'll stay with plot points, and link them to my people and places for now.

 

I am sure I'll have other questions later, once I want to actually tidy it all up, then maybe we could discuss the story sheets in depth.

 

Again, thank you for clearing this up for me.