Storyboards

I feel like I've written a post about this subject before and I probably have, but this should be a little different than last time, so hopefully it'll offer something worthwhile.

Okay, here's for you Demon-aura,

Storyboards - My Way

For my own storyboards I use a program called Netnote. It's a post-it note program the displays little coloured windows (on top of ALL other windows - an extremely useful function). If you're interested in it you can download it for free from this website http://www.alshare.com/, but it's not necessary to write a good storyboard. It's just the software I use. Before this, I used a little book I bought at a dollar store, so it doesn't really matter.

So, let's see. I wrote the storyboard for 'Mystic Wings' in a little book. Afterwards I went through and I had written a 56 page storyboard with additional notes and research. The storyboard for 'Mark of a Goddess' is on Netnote though, so I can't gauge its length in the same way.

I've decided to release my storyboard for chapter one of 'Mark of a Goddess', for your interest and edification.

Chapter One - Cold as Stone

- Hitomi and Van start making out and just as he takes his shirt off they both have a Tarot vision
- From Hitomi's perspective at first it seems like Van attacked her because she's thrown against the headboard of the bed so violently
- Then she has a vision of two gem stones. They are Naria and Eriya's symbols
- Hitomi wakes up and sees that Van fell off the bed as he was knocked out too
- Van puts his shirt back on and says they need to go talk to Dryden
- They find Dryden in his bedroom packing his clothes with such vigor and speaking rapidly in Italian to Selphie
- Van interupts and Folken says tht his cousins have received their power and that he's got to get out of the city right away
- Why?
- He explains about Naria and Eriya and how they are both wildly in love with him and how he doesn't want them back. He wants to be faithful to Selphie and if they come near him, he'll flirt, they'll misinterpret it and he'll be screwed
- Hitomi asks about grief and he says a new symbol takes over and a person might not grieve much
- He says he hasn't got much time to clear out of the city, but he has to go to a place where they can't find him
-He's on his way out when the doorbell rings

This is my original storyboard, so there are some things that are missing from it, because they were details that weren't yet worked out. For instance - the details of the Tarot vision aren't included. I hadn't yet decided what Naria and Eriya's rocks were going to be yet. That was the last detail worked out.

But there have been instances where I've had the story worked out a lot less than this. In my original storyboard for 'Mystic Wings' the original plotline for chapter nine (An Old Flame) was as follows:

-Hitomi goes to The Voltage Room to see Dilandau.

That was it.

I sat and stewed over it for a couple weeks wondering what I could do in that chapter that would be exciting and I came up with what is now chapter nine. It's my favourite chapter in 'Mystic Wings'. So as I was stewing, I came up with the following questions that had to be answered in the chapter.

-Why does Hitomi decide to go to The Voltage Room?
-What sort of place is it?
-What kind of music do they play?
-Do I want to make this a songfic?
-How can I show off Folken's abilities?
-What's Hitomi's relationship with Dilandau like?

Once you start asking yourself questions, you can usually see your way through to answering them and coming up with something great. But I also have to point out that I've never written a storyboard so scanty as that one. It's an extreme example.

But besides writing a storyboard you should have other supporting documents to help you as well. For instance, you could have character sketches (original fiction moreso than fanfiction, but it still may be necessary), research papers, and a timeline. For my Escaflowne series, I have a list of tattoos/abilities/elements for all the Tarot users. For me, a timeline only helps me with the weather and what month of the year I'm on.

If you have any other specific questions on the storyboard, I'll answer them on the forum, I think. Cheers! This was fun.