Plotting

Okay, So I'm a plotter.  A really big one.  If I don't plot, my story falls to bits in my hands while I mourn the death of a beloved idea.
So, the big question is, HOW IN THE WORLD DOES ONE PLOT??? Right?  Well, I'm here to tell you that, just like all things in writing, there is no one right way to plot.  The best thing you can do, is try someone's method and spit out the parts that don't work for you.  But of course, if you're coming here to learn my method, what I just said is not helpful at all.  So lets get into my own plotting process, and what I've tried, and stuff.
So, I began my serious writing journey as a plotter, and though the idea of me being a pantser (Someone who just goes where his/her ideas take him/her) seems nice, I don't think I will ever be one.  The first thing I tried was what was natural.  I hadn't looked at anyone else's methods, I was just left to my own devices.  What I would do was I would list the chapters, and write out a certain amount of material for each chapter.  Something I thought would fill ten pages (My perspective was wacky back then and I thought I could write ten pages a day) is what I would write in my little chapter slots, and I've got no clue to this day how in the world I met the quota of ten pages every time.

Ex.  Character A goes to forest to gather supplies.  Meets Character B.  Returns.  Has conversation with Character C.  Goes back to forest to retrieve misplaced object.  Another conversation.

And that would be one chapter's notes.  Sometimes I would go further, or less.
My next method was obtained through a youtube video by Katytastic.  She talked about her plotting tools, and I used them.  One was the snowflake method, which I personally felt didn't cover enough ground for me, and didn't tell me enough about my book.  The other was something called Phases, which was really similar to my above method, but I never actually went as in depth as it suggested and just ended up right back at my old vague method.

So, in May, I got a book called "The Art of War for Writers"by James Scott Bell (Which I would definitely recommend), and found a few helpful things about plot and such, and which all added to my expertise.  At the moment, I'm adding everything I've learned together and throwing it onto a storyboard.  I find the story board the most helpful, as I'm very scatter brained, and it helps me get everything in one place, rather than one idea written down in twelve different ways on twelve different pieces of paper, because I lost the last piece of paper.  Plot boarding, or storyboarding helps me to get everything in one place, and the best part is, is that I can move stuff about, if I don't like something somewhere.

So, those are my plotting methods.  What are yours?

-Viola June HFA-DGN