hello! been a minute ... school really did a number on me last fall, haha. im trying to finally nail down a plot for a project that's been in rewrite purgatory for years at this point, and i really want to have stuff actually written down. so many of the problems im having with this WIP are because i have been keeping it in my head with minimal physical notes for all this time. i know that it's a dangerous game to try to write the "childhood daydream novel," which is why im trying to nail it down and doing my best to not be afraid of killing my darlings. so, i guess my question is, are there any plotting methods, note formats, etc, that work well for you all ? i have been a pantser like allll my life and i want to pivot. ive heard about "story grids," can anyone here vouch for that/has anyone tried it? thank you!

I like physical post-it notes for visual motivation, but it does get difficult with the details. As a comprimise I use miro, it lets me brainstorm freely and move stuff around. I guess a sub-technique would be some sort of "timeline" method? I like to know the order of events before I start writing.

Hi! What I do is to make sure first what story I want to tell... From start to end. Then I decide about the MC, his motivations, character's traits, and his/her path through the story. Then I think about the antagonist. You are going to read that a novel is as good as its villain, but that's not necessarily true. What I mean is that your antagonist is not always a villain, but it must be the one who challenges the MC. After that, I start planning the supporting characters and their role in the story. Finally, I design my story as a three acts structure. The first act functions as introduction of characters and goals; generally ends with the trigger for the second act. In the second act I develop the MC journey and how he/she moves towards their goals, navigating through the antagonist's challenges leading to the third act: climax and conclusion. Until now, I have written two novels, a historical thriller and a sci-fi adventure. Both following the mentioned method.