Storyboarding with Post-It® notes
You have a project to do or an idea for a new product, service or book. The blank page can sometimes be daunting.
Storyboarding with Post-it® notes is fun and easy. It helps with the creative process and can provide a way to organize ideas. It’s less restrictive than making a list or an outline. It can help define your “Elephant Bites” of a project or book.
In the 1930’s the Walt Disney Studio developed a methodology referred to as storyboarding.
For more info go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storyboard,
Unless you’re making a movie and need pictures, Post-it® notes work well for thoughts and ideas.
First, find a place for your storyboard. You can use a wall or a large piece of paper. Sketch paper or flipchart paper works really well for this. Take a Post-it® pad and jot down ideas – one per note and stick them on the wall. At this point the organization doesn’t matter. You can do this brainstorm in one sitting or over time. I keep a storyboard going for my Journaling JemsTM and add to it as the ideas come to me.
Once you have all your ideas out, you can move the notes around and organize them. When I have my fifty-two ideas for a set of JemsTM, then I organize them into four suits. If you are working on a big project, you could even use different colored notes for sections and sub-sections.
Then step back and figure out what action to take. For instance, if you have used this process to outline chapters in a book, you could pick one chapter and create a storyboard just for that chapter. Or if you are ready, just start writing that chapter, then the next, and so on.
What if you don’t have a large piece of paper? I have done storyboarding on closet doors in hotel rooms or on a page in my journal. Actually, sticking the notes in my journal means I can carry it with me and work on it anywhere, anytime I have a new idea.
Have fun!!!
Judy Peebles
The Journaling JeniusTM
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