Revising with Trello

Trello is a free tool that uses boards, lists, and cards to organize ideas (not sponsored, but highly recommended). I've been using Trello to organize ideas and projects for a while, but I recently discovered how useful it is for revising a plot.

A while back, I realized I needed to take out one of the characters in my WIP The Other Side of the Rainbow. More recently, I decided to rewrite the entire thing, but I still needed to figure out how to take out the character. I wanted a birds eye view of the original plot that would allow me to easily move things around.

That's where Trello comes in. I started by making a list for each chapter and used the cards to list the events that happen in each. Then I messed around with the label feature, which allows you to color-code the cards.

I made a label to mark the events that the character was in, unnecessary details, and things that needed to be fleshed out more. But I recommend adding whatever you want to keep track of!

Here's a screenshot of how it looked when I was done:

Seriously, my brain felt so much better. This made the whole revision process so much less overwhelming.

Next, I wanted to keep the original plot for reference, so instead of editing on this board, I made a new board for the revised plot and copied the lists onto it. This was another feature I didn't know about before, and I was super grateful for it.

From there, I went through the board with the original plot to figure out what needed to be changed, then made those changes on the board for revising.

I'd love to hear your favorite revision tips in the comments. Happy editing!