Worksheets

I've resumed rewrites where I left off on my novel, before I received feedback from my beta reader on a problematic Chapter One, and ended up devoting the following two and a half months making most of the changes he suggested.  That puts me back on Chapter Eighteen, and the four scenes that comprise it.   

I'm not sure when I wrote the first draft of Chapter Eighteen, but I'm guessing three or more years ago.  So, while I vaguely remember what happened in it, the first thing I needed to do was re-familiarize myself with its contents.  Then I had to figure out how what I'd written years ago fits in to what comes before it–if it still does at all.

This is where I want to introduce the concept of worksheets, which I've used throughout the process of writing my novel.

What is a worksheet?

Just what the term suggests.  If I have a problem with anything related to my novel, and I have to work through it for whatever reason–whether to satisfy myself about something or to better understand it–I prepare a worksheet.   

In the case of Chapter Eighteen, I had to understand (work through) what happens in the chapter in relation to how I want to tell it.  That is, I had to decide if a start to finish telling is the best way to go (may be a little dull for the reader), or if hopping around a bit, between the "present" action (which is actually the past) and flashbacks (if I do this, it might be a little confusing for the reader) is the right way to reveal the chapter.     

So here's what I did:

1.  I took out a letter-sized sheet of yellow, lined paper.
2.  I dated the sheet, because I like to keep track of when I work on things throughout my project.
3.  I titled the sheet "Chronology of Chapter 18, Grant."
4.  I listed all the events, in date order, that make up the basis of this chapter.  And finally,
5.  I identified when the best time was to begin the telling of this chapter in the overall chronology.   

Worksheets can be hand-written or typed, whichever you prefer.  Because I'm old-school–and because I spend enough time in front of my MacBook, typing away–I usually opt to hand-write my worksheets.  For me, there's still something more immediate in pushing a pen across a sheet of paper, recording the words that come to mind.  Somehow, I feel more connected to what I write.   

The beauty of worksheets, as I see it, is they can be used for any difficulty you're having with your novel.  Yes, you could just sit in your chair, stare into space, ponder the challenge before you, and figure out what you need to know–without writing down a word.  But that's not at all the same for me. 

Because I hand-write a daily journal, everything I write on a piece of paper has more significance, means something more than just deciding what to do and keeping that decision in my head.  Anything I hand-write is more tangible, and, later, I can refer to it again, when I've worked on many more things in the interim, and forgotten all the details of the conclusions I arrived at.   

Worksheets work for me.  They may or may not work for you.  If you're struggling to understand something important in your novel, and you want (or need) to get it clear in your mind before you move forward, preparing one or more worksheets just might do the trick.

Couldn't hurt to try them, right?