Scribbling Saturday: Planning

Last Saturday I mentioned that I am very plot driven as a writer. The trouble is, that it is not usually a very complex plot, which does not make a very long or absorbing story. I add extra bits as I go. Now I am editing my very first Kestrel novel in the light of all I have learned since, and it's really hard to keep track of.

The latest edition of Writing Magazine has the first of a series of articles on developing a story. It's called The Big Idea, and the basic question is, how do you develop your original big idea into a whole story without straying away from it? The answer, which apparently many well known authors use, is to write individual ideas on index cards and arrange them on the floor. As each idea sparks others, you can write more cards and fit them in.

It sounds like a great idea, but my plot is already written, and I have to find the holes and rearrange things. I think I have to write a lot of index cards.