I wrote a post for Writer Unboxed on the long and winding transition from police report to novel, here. It’s an expansion on a craft point I have raised before.
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My name is Rosina Lippi. I'm a former academic and tenured university professor, writing full time since 2000. Under the pen name Sara Donati I am the author of the Wilderness series, six historical novels that follow the fortunes of a group of families living in upstate New York from about 1792-1825. A new series based on later generations of the same families was launched September 1, 2015 with The Gilded Hour. The next volume in the new series, Where the Light Enters, was released in 2019.
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Thank you for the great idea Rosina.
One fact per index card then ordering as needed is a great Project Management technique, have you ever taken training in/worked in that field? I don’t know know why I never thought to use this trick with writing before…
Post its are good to use too if you have wallspace and its something you need to see all the time. Just remember when you’ve decided on some sort of order to write a number or letter on each so you will know where they go if they fall off.
Kenzie — The last bit you mention — noting the order on the cards — is something quite crucial I should have mentioned.
Never had any formal training in Project Management. But then I was on the faculty of a Big Ten school for ten years.
My comment from Writer Unboxed: I’d never thought of plot and story this way before. It makes sense. When you say the police report raises a lot of questions, it makes me think of how people will comment on news stories sometimes. Especially where those who know the journalism world can see that the reporter simply heard or read a police report and created a news item from there. No investigative reporting completed, just a basic reporting of the facts as the police report states them. The comment section to the on-line news item inevitably asks all the questions people are dying to ask. To ask someone. It’s fascinating. And I wonder often if the reporter in question goes back to review the comment section (what human could stand not reading them?!) picking up on what “the people” or rather, those who bother commenting on a news item on-line, want answered. It can be shocking, the sorts of things a web comment audience want to know. It can make a merely shy person downright paranoid about going out in public. The sorts of things people apparently are curious about, on a daily basis, but have no way to ask perfect strangers. But we all want to know things, don’t we?