Recently, we had the pleasure of interviewing charismatic and vivacious author Eliana West about her unique book planning process. The secret to her success is creating plotting journals—collages and collections of notes held together in a single notebook tied with a ribbon. As the pictures below will demonstrate, she pours her heart and soul into these pages, and they’re as colorful as they are useful for her!
What follows are only our biggest takeaways from our interview. We highly recommend watching the full video to get the most out of your experience!
Takeaway #1: There are no rules if you don’t want to follow any rules.
The word should need not enter into your thoughts when it comes to creating your own plotting journal, according to Eliana. She allows her plotting journals to grow organically as her plot and characters develop, fertilized by photos, scrapbook paper, magazine cutouts, maps, and even the occasional candy wrapper! (You can snag a full list of Eliana’s plotting journal supplies—it’s linked below!)
Takeaway #2: When things aren’t working out on the page, step away and do something to “think while you think.”
You’ve probably experienced a time where you were doing something not even remotely writing-related, then out of nowhere, you had an epiphany. Suddenly, your WIP’s plot thread is untangled, and you want to get back to writing right that minute.
For Eliana, her “thinking while she thinks” activity is crafting her plotting journals. Gluing and taping in elements lead to writing thoughts on index cards, which leads to type-type-typing. If you can recreate this kind of magic for yourself, you absolutely should find a way!
Takeaway #3: You don’t have to wait to finish your plotting journal before you write.
If we take the lessons we learned in our first and second takeaways, this is a no-brainer! There is no rule that says you have to have your story fully worked out before you start writing, and you may not even want to do that. Leaving empty pages or spots in your plotting journal allow you to return when you’re stuck or when it’s time to fill in plot holes.
But if you do come back to your plotting journal and find things need rearranging? Rip them out like Eliana does and try again. Learn to let go and problem solve and fix. It will make you a better writer every time.
Ready to start your own plotting journal?
About Eliana West
Eliana West is an award-winning author who writes stories with vibrant and diverse characters. She is committed to embracing diversity in my writing. That means she won’t limit myself to a single genre. Instead, she welcomes every story that comes her way with open arms. Her aim is to create characters that reflect the diversity of her community, with a range of social backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations. She loves to weave in historical elements whenever she can and fearlessly engage in challenging dialogues. She believes everyone deserves a happy ending.
When she’s not plotting how to help her characters overcome whatever obstacles she’s thrown in their path to find true love, you’ll find her with her husband traversing winding country roads in her cherished vintage Volkswagen Westfalia, Bianca, in search of adventure and wineries.
