J.K. Rowling’s Plot Spreadsheets

To work on paper is a pretty standard way of working for creative people, I think.<p>I'm working on a digital comic project with a particular direction twist (more on this later). My friend is the creator of the comic and the director. I made a software for the creation of the content of our app and he could use it for the entire process. Still, he uses special sheets he printed for the purpose. I will modify the software to look more like those sheets he created, but they will remain his main medium to work on.<p>And when I'm developing something, I like to to grab a pen and to think on paper from time to time, despite all the software designed with this purpose in mind.

I actually want to do this in reverse. I want to do a careful read of the Baroque Cycle trilogy by Neal Stephenson and make a note of the location of every major character for as fine of a time period I can. Then I want to load it all into Timeline (<a href="http://www.simile-widgets.org/timeline/" rel="nofollow">http://www.simile-widgets.org/timeline/</a>)

Regarding using pen and paper, for certain tasks, I'm never fully satisfied with either working on paper or doing it on a computer.<p>For things like UI, mapping out the basic architecture of an app, on one hand I find that pen and paper is much faster and more convenient: you can scribble notes here and there, easily scratch out parts, draw arrows; but on the other, I wish it were more digital to reorganize things: make more room here, duplicate this, move that...<p>With software, if I want to add a small note, I need to select a different font or a different tool, click where I want to put it... On paper, I can just write smaller.<p>But on paper, if I realize that I need to add an element in between two others, the best way is often times to start all over again,<p>So neither are perfect, but maybe some touch interfaces will get us there.

JRR Tolkien worked this way as well. He wrote out all the days for the books and where everyone was, even down to what phase of the lunar cycle the day was. There was actually an exhibit of Tolkien's notes that toured around for a bit, and they looked not entirely unlike what Rowling created. For reference, the collection was from Marquette University. (<a href="http://www.marquette.edu/library/archives/tolkien.shtml" rel="nofollow">http://www.marquette.edu/library/archives/tolkien.shtml</a>)

Can we please change the story link to <a href="http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/10/08/potd-jk-rowlings-plot-spreadsheet-for-harry-potter-and-the-order-of-the-phoenix/" rel="nofollow">http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/10/08/potd-jk-rowlings-plot-sp...</a> subtraction.com adds nothing.