About a month ago I got feeling kinda 'lost' in my attempt to try and develop a little short story. I had chosen a direction for the story, and was writing down ideas and sketching thumbs inside a sketchbook, even did some storyboarding but it felt like I was going round in circles. I felt there were all kinds of things wrong with what I was working on, but I couldn't see what it was.
I needed to create overview.
I needed to create something to help organise my thoughts and get some overview of what I was doing. I felt I had to create a place where I can turn all my written ideas into simple visuals and put them all in one place. So I build this little pinboard:
So far it is working great. Every idea I have, either if it's a 'new story direction'-idea, a 'sequence'-idea or an 'improved composition'-idea for an existing thumbnail, I quickly sketch it out, and pin it on the right place on the board. This visual way of developing my ideas is working better for me than writing it down in words or do sketches inside a sketchbook like I've been doing so far.
Also, every day, I pick out one thumbnail on the board that I feel has key story potential, and turn it into a bigger greyscale sketch. Like so:
And of course there are thumbnails that either don't make it to the pinboard or are taking of after several days.
For those I've created a special place, I don't throw them away, who knows I might need them one day, but I gather them in a box.
Right now I'm focussing on sketching and developing the beginning, aka the CONFLICT, and the ending for my story, aka the RESOLUTION.
When I'm happy with those two images, then it makes sense to me to take the next step: develop the middle part of the story and start with storyboarding sequences.
So back to the board!
