Jen : Moss, Moss, There's A Spider In My Office. Could You Deal With It? I Just Hate Spiders.

FATHERRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

Update #2: A New Outlining Method, Dropdown Plotter

I've been having a hard time conceptualizing how to plan out a novel lately. It used to come so easy to me. Now that I'm a real adult, it feels like there isn't enough space in my brain anymore for me to have my story all in my head without writing my ideas down somewhere.

So, good outlining methods, which can be hard to come by, are crucial for my writing process.

But, a lot of traditional methods don't work for me.

In my opinion, it's extremely important to have an outlining method that doesn't overwhelm you, and which feels creatively freeing. And when do I need to be more creatively free, than when writing an IT Crowd fanfiction?

So I've come up with a new outlining method that I'd love to share with you all! I call it Dropdown Plotter.

Dropdown Plotter uses the dropdown menu feature, which can be found in both Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel, to help you better visualize (and, most importantly, easily reorganize) the major aspects of each chapter of your story.

Basically, it's a spreadsheet that includes, at minimum, 8 columns.

Chapter Title

Plotlines

Included Character(s)

Perspective Character(s)

Location(s)

Chapter Story Description

Writing Stage

Due Date

Why keep track of these things? Balance. Basically, making sure your characters, plotlines, POVs, and important locations all get adequate page time.

It's a lot easier to conceptualize these things when you have it on a color-coded spreadsheet, zoomed out really far, and can see in a big picture way. For example, you might see that the red color indicating "Legolas" is in a scene, drops off after Chapter 17. You might see that the green-coded plot about his missing shoe is only important for 5 chapters in the middle of the story, or that we're spending almost the entire story in the bathroom and never in the evil lair.

So, how do you use the Dropdown Plotter?

First, you go into the dropdown menu, and you can see all the plots you've selected. There's a handy "search feature" for those writing the next Game of Thrones. You want to click the little pencil icon in the bottom right, which is the "edit" button.

On the right-hand side of your screen, a column will pop up called "Data Validation Rules." From here, you can edit the names and colors of each item in the dropdown menu, and add or delete things as you'd like.

Make sure to click "allow multiple selections" on the bottom of the data validation rules pop-up. This will allow you to select multiple characters, multiple locations, and multiple plots when you're in the dropdown menus.

Don't forget to click "Done" at the bottom!

On top of the dropdown menus, the nice thing about working in a spreadsheet is that you can always drag and drop the rows and columns. This makes it extremely easy to change the order of scenes around, in a way that feels very impermanent and easy.

Here is what my Dropdown Plotter looked like for the first three chapters of The Grant: An IT Crowd Fanfiction.

Looks pretty, right? And pretty outlines build confidence! Not only that, but what I like most about this outlining method is that it encourages me to be less precious with my ideas.

It's way less intimidating to overhaul major aspects of your story, such as the dominant POV, the main plot, etc., when all you have to do is click a little button in the dropdown menu to change everything. When I'm editing a little blurb in a spreadsheet versus an entire step outline, it reminds me that no writing problem is insurmountable, and nothing is ever really set in stone.

Again, it builds confidence.

Unfortunately, I've only built a Dropdown Plotter in Google Sheets, but I've provided a blank version to share with you all. The nice thing about spreadsheets is that you can add and delete things as you see fit. For example, some people might want to add...

More columns indicating multiple scenes within the same chapter!

A "Story Beat" column, to mark the specific plot beats each chapter follows (as in the Hero's Journey or the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet).

An "Important Info" column, to mark any worldbuilding or character details discussed or introduced in a certain chapter.

Literally anything your little heart desires!

Happy outlining and I hope you enjoy the Dropdown Plotter!

Google Docs

Dropdown Plotter Spreadsheet

one thing i learnt after years of being on here is that we need an office-centric series to obsess over

can you make on for Maurice Moss :). something golden hour, vintage, light academia, retro computer :)))

Maurice Moss Stimboard

👓 🌇 🧷

📺 x 📺

🧷 🌇 👓

Meet my IT Crowd OC! Name: Imogene Prendergast Height: 135 lbs Weight: 5’4” Eye colour: Brown Age: 26 Occupation: Field Services Engineer for Prophecy Electronics Likes: Windows XP, Doctor Who, Alien, the Hainish Cycle, Metroid Prime, 10,000 Maniacs Dislikes: Windows Vista, The Fifth Element, Grand Theft Auto, any & all sports, going outside Looking for: There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t.

icon credits: @spreadicons @sugar-violence faceclaim: mary elizabeth winstead

URGENT!

my boyfriend is in need of funds for traveling due to his grandpa passing away on may 2nd. his mother is purchasing the ticket but he needs transportation to the airport and back once he's home. he will need food as well, specifically gluten free friendly food which is usually expensive.

the current goal is $100. please help/reblog!

he has two adopts here and open commissions!

v*nmo // c*shapp // dm 4 p*yp*l

0/$100

moss would like vocaloid NOPE IM NOT TAKING ANY CRITICISM the time period is right, the show is set from 2006-2013. perfect time for vocaloid. he likes vocaloid. dont need it to make sense, its just true.

I just…. Created something

Can't believe he bikes to work every day. Seventy miles.

do you guys know about richard ayoade's stupid idiot loser folding bicycle