Put The ‘Story’ In ‘Storyboard’
or concept wall/map/evidence wall/ whatever.
Doing a giant concept wall was something that really helped me when I was laying out everything that Island 8 would include, as well as things like how it looked, the science behind everything, and who was there. There’s nothing quite like turning your wall into your desk and having it be devoted to something you are really passionate about.
With my concept wall I had three different colors of yarn connecting all my thoughts to the map. Green was for lore or workings of the world. I’d start with one concept I knew I wanted to include in the story, the Atom Galaxies for example, I drew a complete atom broken into parts based on the type on power it correlated with, one galaxy for each part of the atom: Proton, Electron, and Neutron. So the Proton Galaxy is for all animal related powers, like our main character, Theodore, has the bear atom. So he has the ability to change a percentage of his body into a bears corresponding part. The Electron Galaxy represents elemental powers, ones that are like pyrokinesis or geokinesis. And lastly, the Neutron Galaxy, the most rare type of powers, it is associated with powers that are created by the mind. Powers that people have made up and over time these ideas have become common knowledge, things like telepathy, teleportation, and telekinesis. Because of so many people thinking about a common idea has made it real and achievable by the atom generation. Each kid belonging to the Atom generation falls into one of these three categories. In special cases there are hybrids. We will talk more on that in a different post.
Blue yarn was location based, so that how all the pictures were linked to their corresponding places on the map. Behind each location I would write a small bit about what would happen there and who would be involved with that event. I would include specific details and make sure to mention what characters were involved. Even if these pieces of history I was creating wouldn't directly go into the story I knew it would still help me, especially with knowing a characters past.
That’s where the red yarn would come into play. It would connect characters to events that they were apart of and other characters that they would be interacting with frequently. I would use it to explain relationships between characters or their relationship to a place on the map or an event.