The 3x5 cards annoy the crap out of me. I hate having so sort through them to see what I wrote on them. I tried color coding them, buying little card holders with tabbed dividers so I could sort them that way, but I just do not like the 3x5 cards.
Plotting? Well, that went slightly better although in all honesty, I always was a cross between a plotter and a seat of the pants writer, so this was simply trying to envision things farther out.
On the plus side, it kind of gave me an idea which direction to head. On the negative side, about 80% of what I wrote didn't happen in the book, so I'm not certain it's worth all the time I took to flesh it out.
However, that was for a book that was already partially written (Wicked Salvation). I also did it for a new book, and when I get to that one, I'll give plotting out the whole story another evaluation.
But no more 3x5 cards. What I found worked better for me was taking a sketchbook like the kind artists use and dividing it into 8 boxes. If I do the two facing pages, that gives me 16 boxes (or cards if you will) to make plot notes in. I like this better because I can see multiple ideas without having to find a table and lay all the index cards out.
I wish, though, that I could find an oversized notebook with the boxes already drawn. Or if I could find a way to get some printed up like this. My artist sketchbook is 9x12 which feels about right.
