Wednesday Writing Tip: Storyboarding

I storyboard my wips. A lot. I have a large storyboard on a big chalkboard that I salvaged from a garage sale a few years ago. It covers the main events in the story arcs of the hero/heroine and the main events in the story.

But I never thought about doing minor storyboards for the secondary characters until I started working on my Sooper Sekrit Projekt a few weeks ago. I was in a meeting (that had nothing to do with writing) and we began storyboarding different goals, etc. and something just clicked. I've been working on ways to better develop the secondary characters in the wips...had tried the interview/conversation and a few other things but they always seemed too long. I like the storyboarding concept for secondary characters, though, because it adds a bit of depth but not too much (the last thing we want is the secondary characters to take over, right?).

Here's how I do it: I give the secondary characters one goal or outcome for the book - and not just a "helping the H/h reach X, Y or Z" goal. They have to have a reason for being there. I put that goal in a big star or circle shape on my diagram. Next, I create four or five stumbling blocks - maybe the H/h actually interfere with her goal, maybe other secondary characters impact his or her life. All of those stumbling blocks are placed in rectangles and the stumbling blocks can be moments that impact the story as a whole. At the end of the diagram is another star or circle of that story arc completed - the character met or didn't meet the goal (if they didn't, that could set up a sequel)...

The whole diagram winds up looking like this (imagine these words as the actual symbols): STAR---------RECTANGLE-------RECTANGLE------RECTANGLE-----Rectangle------STAR.

That's how my storyboard goes...what is your favorite writing trick?