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I recently discovered the world of flexagons. Flexagons are toys constructed of folded paper that can be manipulated to reveal hidden faces.

Since the Super Bowl is this weekend and our beloved Packers are playing, I decided that it would be a fun challenge to design a football flexagon craft. The triangle shapes used in a trihexaflexagon (hexagon shaped flexagon with three faces) look a lot like a footballs.

You can make your own football styled trihexaflexagon by clicking over to this Google docs link Football Flexagon Template. (To print the Google Doc, click on File and Print PDF.) I designed the football pattern template with Green Bay and Pittsburgh team colors. Be sure to show-off your impressive paper toy to your friends at a Super Bowl party this weekend! The flexagon is fun for both kids and adults!

GO PACK!


Watch this YouTube video to learn how to assemble (sorry I got a little off-screen during part of it. I was trying to quickly record it during naptime):

OK, you’ve narrowed down your story to a plot template and you know what characters, events, settings are implied by the story you are thinking about and the plot template. You know some of the pitfalls of plots. Now what?

It think this is the hardest part of plotting a novel, going from generalities to particulars, actually choosing and writing scenes. But you have to make a start, so let’s get to it.

Working Methods

Plan or write. Plan first or write and see where it goes? Oh, the perennial question! I’ll dodge it, though, by saying you must follow your own bent. Find your own working methods and habits of working that produce pages that lead to a full draft of a novel.

However! IF you usually just start in writing, TRY planning each scene. IF you usually plan each scene, TRY just jumping into the writing. Every once in a while, it’s great to break your pattern of working and see what happens. Shake yourself up! (I suggested this once at a national conference and got several notes later that this was the best advice the writers had ever taken, the resulting novel was the best she had written – so try it!) If the results are disappointing, you can always go back to your original methods of writing your novel.

It just depends. But I just avoided the question again of what to write first, second, third, etc. And here’s where the answers get frustrating: it just depends. Not knowing your genre, audience, voice, characters, setting, plot template – I simply can’t say. But I can give general guidelines.

Try to write in scenes. A scene is a unit of story that is self-contained, in that it has a beginning, middle and end; it has a goal and a resolution (either tragedy or success); it plays a role in the story. Writing in scenes adds tension to a story and keeps the writing focused. (MUST you write in scenes? No. Yes. It depends. If you’ve never done it, try it!) This is easy advice to ignore; I did it for many years and my writing suffered. More on the anatomy of scenes tomorrow.

Working Attitudes

Don’t be boring! Try to build in surprises. Bored readers won’t finish your story.

• Scene cuts. With each new scene or chapter, stop and think about what is expected next. Don’t do it. Instead, jump ahead a bit more than expected.
• Leap-frog story lines. Or leave a character in the middle of a crisis and leap frog to another character where you get us involved emotionally, before leap-frogging back to the first story line.
• Ground your novel in physical, sensory details. In the scene’s opening, set the scene, especially the emotional tone. Do this by careful selection of sensory details and the specific words you use to describe what is happening.
• Focus on emotions. Always remember to make us care about a character before springing danger.

Don’t be cliched! Brainstorm like crazy. Before you start a scene/chapter, list ten possible events and sequence of events. Yes. Ten. Not nine. Not eight. Ten. Force yourself to go beyond the cliche that you thought of first and go on to something different, more striking and more original.

Plot Complications and SubPlots

Depending on what source you consult, you may hear a couple terms used concerning subplots and plot layers, or extra complications for the main character. These work for me.

• Plot layer. A secondary problem given to the s
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I love my clients. I love my readers. I love art.

I must be crazy with all this love, because I decided to create and post some downloadable Valentine’s Day art so the love can be shared. Here’s what I’m practically giving away:

FREE greeting card templates

Yep, totally free and ready for you to create your card. I’ve included an Adobe Illustrator file, an EPS file, and even a Microsoft Word document. Whether or not you have super special graphics software, you should be able to print your own Valentines on plain ol’ 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper. It’s an easy ZIP file download, right here.

Valentine Art Collection - limited time only!

I can’t believe I’m doing this, but love is a blinding force. I created a collection of four original pieces of Valentine-themed art. A collection like this is worth hundreds, but I am just about giving it away for… $1.50. I told you I was crazy. Pocket change gets you the entire collection of high-res image files that you can plug into just about any graphics software or even a word processing app. Make your own cards or shirts, post it on your blog, use it for a Valentine-themed Twitter background.

This is for a limited time only. After that very special day of love (February 14), I’m taking the art down and it will be used in the gift industry. Then you’ll have to go to store and buy it like the rest of us mortals (details on the limited-use license are on the site).

Be happy, be free, be creative, and please take advantage of this amazing art sale!

I’ve set things up so it’s super easy to get everything on my site. There’s even a handy little PayPal button for your convenience. Of course, the greeting card templates are free and you can find them in the same place.

Happy Valentine’s Day! As always, I love to hear from you about how you used the art. In fact, let’s have a little contest, shall we?

The best use of the downloaded art gets their money back. Just e-mail me with what you did and I’ll open my heart for judging.