Writing guides
Methods for planning stories and other writing with index cards using Cork.
How to prepare for NaNoWriMo using index cards
What to prepare in October for 50,000 words in November: a premise, characters with wants, a few landmarks, and a scene bank on index cards.
Plotter vs. pantser: which kind of writer are you?
What plotters and pantsers actually do, where the terms came from, the honest trade-offs of each approach, and how to work out which one suits you.
How to overcome writer's block
What writer's block usually is, how to tell a story problem from a standards problem from plain exhaustion, and the techniques that get you writing again.
How to outline a novel with the Hero's Journey
What the Hero's Journey is, Campbell's 17 stages and Vogler's 12, what to watch out for, and how to lay the whole shape out with index cards.
How to outline a novel with the 3-act structure
What the three-act structure is, the six beats that mark its turns, why act two often sags, and how to lay the whole shape out as index cards you can move.
How to make a character bible with index cards
What a character bible is, what goes on a character card field by field, and how linking cards to scenes turns the bible into a live index of appearances.
The Save the Cat beat sheet: how to build a beat board with index cards
What the Save the Cat beat sheet is, all 15 beats explained, and how to turn them into a movable beat board of index cards for your novel.
The snowflake method: how it works and where index cards fit in
An easy-to-follow walk through the snowflake method for novels, its ten stages grouped for clarity, and how the scene list becomes index cards you can move.
Scene cards: what goes on one and how to write cards that stay useful
What a scene card is and what goes on one, field by field, with clear examples and the bad-card versus fixed-card pairs that separate a card from clutter.
How to outline a novel with index cards
A practical method for outlining a novel on index cards — what to put on a scene card, how to arrange your acts, and how to spot structure problems.