By Guest Blogger Robbi Hess

If you're like me, you struggle a bit with how to get from Point A to Point B when you write -- whether it's fiction or nonfiction. While I write more nonfiction than fiction, I've discovered that every article, flash fiction piece or novel length work has a plot. True, it can be called an outline, or follow a certain structure in nonfiction but the skeleton is still there.

I recently attended a meeting of the Lilac City Rochester Writers and author Dee Carey outlined (pun intended) her take on how to plot a novel. She gave an example of how to storyboard your work on a white board. It was a fun exercise as we all got to choose crayons (I mean, when's the last time you picked up a crayon?!) and she gave us a manilla folder on which to chart out our story idea.

Dee used Hansel and Gretel as an example of how to plot a novel. She used a different color crayon for each main character and began graphing the story out so you had the skeleton of a story once it was charted out. When characters were going to interact, their different colored lines connected and she'd write a plot point at that intersection. I hadn't realized until her demonstration that I am more of a visual thinker than I thought. I'd tried plotting my novel in a three ring binder, on index cards, on computer writing programs and eventually get so lost in the amount of words that it all became clutter.

Dee's method was clear and sparse. I liked that you could chart your work in progress on a white board, a manilla folder (handy for holding other notes about your story) or on whatever other medium suits your office space.

After I left the workshop it got me thinking that the method would also come in handy for those of us who work more in the nonfiction realm than the fiction. I am in the midst of pulling my thoughts together for my series of How To Write books and have been using the method to decide the logical flow of my books and I have found it 1) very helpful in keeping me organized and 2) because I've been charting it on my manilla folder it seems more real. I've actually outlined three of the How To Writes so far.

What is your favorite method of plotting or are you a seat-of-the-pantser when it comes to your writings? I've love to hear all about your methods!