I’ve been working on a multi-generational story that spans almost 100 years. To help me keep track of who-did-what, and how the pieces fit together, I’ve resorted to old-school storyboarding to track my characters.

My main character has gotten into a situation that’s pretty brutal, and I’m putting off writing what’s going to happen to her next. It’s hard to bring these characters to life, then have them go through hard things. But that’s how real storytelling starts.

And before I do my storytelling, I’ve got to do my story organizing. So here’s to post-it notes, pencils and erasers.