"Sabriya's Hope" Writing Journal No. 14

I d rather write about writing than write. 

I'm well into Act 3 and tasting the end of the first draft.  The closer to the end of an action-oriented story, the more I need graphics for plots, timelines for flashbacks, and maps for geography to keep me organized...or perhaps I should say to keep my characters focused and locally organized. 

I'm pretty sure every writer does this to some extent, although I think I'm more dependent than many since I'm visually dependent, and without such linear aids, I don't know where or when things are supposed to be and happen. 

Here are a few of the aids I rely on, though I think I shared an early version of the plot chart.  All of these aids get revised as I write and change my mind, hopefully for good reason.

 Plot Chart. Green checkmarks and slashes show what's written. 

Excel timeline of major events, dates, and ages of characters.

Map of fictitious Pellagore, the capital Meijing, overlapping SE China, showing locations, tracks and travel timing.

The final battle takes place in the Mannu Clinic, an abandoned mini-hospital that sits next to a navigable canal connecting the traffickers to the South China Sea and their foreign clients. 

Deck Plan of the Ruskie Gold, 70-foot ocean trawler used to secretly ferry trafficked victims from Pellagore to foreign territories.