My spreadsheet has 54 different columns. Am I overthinking it? Overdoing it? I don't think so. Every cell is helpful, and it is not getting in the way of the actual writing, revising, and editing, at all. In fact, it helps inspire that. It's just a ton of work, but it gives me confidence that what I have works bc I can evaluate it from this documentation, and if I forget something or do something incorrectly, it immediately alerts me. Bottom line, that's a whole lot better than not really having a clue what is working and what isn't.
Love this, I'm into structure but my memoir is driven by a mix of internal and external conflict that seemingly can't be completely inserted into scenes. Life experiences change worldview and moral compass. The protagonist has an epiphany, struggles with professional/personal conflict, and after life-altering sacrifices comes out the back end a different more admirable person. While the external conflict is scene driven, much of the internal conflict is an evolution of perception stemming from observation, analysis and contemplation. Also, understanding changing worldviews is central to the writer and the reader; I'm struggling with how the backstory to understand worldviews that exist(ed) can be structured into a scene (it's the back story). I would be all in filling in 14 columns for 64 scenes but I'm not sure how I convey information relative to the mindset of the characters without providing the background that created it. Need to understand how this goes into a scene before investing time on a spreadsheet. Maybe I'll find that in the book which I just got.
