Brainstorming the WIP

I'm about halfway through my current work-in-progress (WIP), a Regency romance novel set in Shropshire, and kept forgetting key details (it used to be easier when I was writing drafts in my 20s). I had attended the Philadelphia Writers Conference this past summer (a topic for another post in the future; I'm so sad that this was the last conference), and particularly enjoyed Terri Brisbin's presentation on romance writing. In one of her handouts, she mentioned Jami Gold's website as a resource for writers (seriously, check out her wonderful worksheets- I'm working on filling out one of her beat sheets), and I became happily lost in sorting through all of Gold's marvelous posts for a few hours.

This weekend I especially focused on the article "Complex Story? Use a Crime Wall" written by guest editor Kitty the Retro-Writer. I've had a corkboard for years that I had been planning to use to organize my writing, but it's been gathering dust in my closet. Well, I dragged it out this weekend, rearranged some of the pins I had already placed, and began working on my wall. Since it's a romance, I'm mostly focused on the hero and heroine, and in the future will be adding other key characters plus setting details. It's so handy to have the corkboard perched close to me when I'm working- no more forgetting pesky little details like the heroine's eye color! As for the other material, I love the image of the man and woman dancing at the foot of the stairs - I tore it out of one of my old Victoria magazines a few years ago. I also have some inspiring quotes up, like Nora Roberts' classic "I can fix a bad page but I can't fix a blank one." To make the planning a bit more fun, I use my glitter gel pens. Like my novel WIP, my corkboard is also a WIP. I'd love to hear from other writers how they organize their information and keep track of all those details.