If you use an iPad or have an iPhone or iPod touch, I have discovered a great free mind mapping App that can help you with planning your stories. It is called Total Recall. The maps are easy to create and edit at the touch of a finger and it is a brilliant way to organise your thoughts and ideas.
This is, of course, if you are one of the lucky people who are able to plan their stories. I am not one of those writers. How I wish I could plan. I have sat with a notebook in my lap or with my new beautiful mind mapping bubbles just waiting to be filled in and come up with a big fat nothing.
The only way I can write a story is by coming up with the kernel of an idea. I then sit down and write...whatever comes into my head and gradually the story forms. At this point I don't even know how the story will end. A walk with Bonnie helps to pull all the parts of the story together and sows the seeds of an ending and by the time I get back to my computer, the story has usually come together in an organic way.
The good news this weekend is that I have sold my first story to Woman's Weekly.