revision technique: index-card analysis
Lately, I’ve been finding this practice helpful when I’m trying to figure out how to revise a story. Mapping out my narrative on index cards gives me some objective distance from what I’ve written and helps me analyze what I’m trying to do with each of my scenes.
To do your own index-card analysis, you’ll just need a stack of blank index cards, a pen, and a copy of your story draft.
the steps of Index-Card analysis:
Mark the individual scenes in your story draft.
A “scene” is generally defined as: “an action that takes place in a single setting without a break in time.”
Using one index card for each scene, write down the main action of each scene in your story. You should end up with a series of index cards with short (one sentence or less) descriptors of your scenes.
E.g., “Cara goes to the store,” or “Bobby steals a candy bar from his brother.”
Then, on the index cards, below the scene descriptors, briefly note down the purpose of each scene. Why did you decide to include it in your story?
E.g., “Cara feels upset after getting fired from work.” or “Bobby finally gets revenge on his brother.”
At the very bottom edge of each card, write down the key emotion you’re trying to evoke in the scene.
E.g., “shame,” “anxiety,” “triumph,” “fear”
At the top right-hand corner of each card, write down the level of tension in the scene, with 1 being the least amount of tension and 10 being the most.
A scene of someone peacefully reading a book would be a 1, whereas an argument between a couple on the verge of divorce might be an 8 or a 9.
Lay out your index cards in the order they currently appear in your story.
Now, consider the following:
Are you clear on the emotion you’re trying to get across in each scene?
Does the sequence of emotions make sense/build toward a climactic ending?
Are any of your scenes unnecessary/repetitive? If so, could be they compressed, combined, or omitted?
Does the tension in the story rise pretty consistently, or are there long sections where tension dissipates or flattens out?
Does the character experience a significant change over the course of the story, or does the reader experience a significant emotional shift by the end?
Now that you’ve considered all these factors:
Take a few minutes to experiment with rearranging your cards.
Can you see a better order or a more inventive way of approaching the story?
Do you see some scenes that need to be changed to make the story flow more smoothly or land with more impact?
If so, write out a few new index cards describing those scenes, and add them to your index-card layout. You may want to swap out old scenes for new scenes.
Try this technique with a story draft you’ve written, and see if it gives you added clarity on how the story needs to change in revision.