Highlighters, coloured index cards & gel pens, oh my!

(Side note: who says "oh my" anymore? Not any young'uns, that's for sure. Oh and plus, this post is looong. So maybe... don't read it on your lunch break?)

I have a stationery fetish.

 In fact, I'm writing these very words on gorgeous paper that can only be defined as orchid (aka purple). I take any opportunity to use my rawksome old-fashioned writing utensils. Yeah, that's right, I actually write on paper. And this is the Millenium baby you're talking to! In my opinion, there's no better way to put your hand muscles to work than when outlining. Here's a colourful method to try. (And, since this post turned out to be way longer than I thought, I gave you subtitles! Yay!)

index cards + setting = highlighters + characters

Assign each setting in your novel an index card colour, say orange for school, blue for home, red for the water park, etc. Write down a summary sentence for each scene on its respective colour and lay them out in front of you. What do you see?

If there's a lot of orange, then you know you can take the time to develop your protag's school life more in-depth. Add some teacher names, describe a favourite (or hated) class, maybe even a little description about the barf-coloured bathrooms? My point is: if one setting is particularly important, make it interesting, make it reactive. Make it alive. Setting is a powerful element you can manipulate, and coloured index cards will help you do just that.

Now assign each of your secondary characters (basically, everyone except your main character) a highlighter colour. Mark every scene with the colours of the characters present and then take a gander. Just like with your settings, identify which secondary characters are most essential to the story and make them distinctive. Consider giving them some backstory, or conflict amongst themselves. An active setting is a treat, but active characters are a must.

gel pens + small stuffz = OMG I WANT THAT GLITTER PEN.

Now that you've got some of the big-picture stuff down, arm yourself with those gel pens -- oooh, is that a sparkly teal blue? Here, I'll trade you my hot pink for it. Pretty please? What? Keep going? Oh right, sorry. Got sidetracked. Ahem. *clears throat*

We're going hunting for adverbs, telling vs. showing and dialogue tags. Underline any adverbs you find in, say, purple, any passages full of telling where you could be showing in yellow, and dialogue tags in green.

Look over each purple mark and ask yourself if those adverbs really are necessary. Same with the dialogue tags -- can the conversation carry itself after a while? And for yellow passages, decide whether showing or telling would be more effective. Sometimes it is the latter, but those occasions must be judiciously identified.

conclusion. Because my high school English teacher always tells me I need one.

By now your hands are probably smeared with glitter and your floor might be littered with index cards. But hey, who ever said a creative mind is an organized one? ;)