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Plan Your Novel with Index Cards!

April 16, 2025
PLAN YOUR NOVEL WITH INDEX CARDS!
borrowing a Screenwriter’s Tool

— a podcast episode —

How can I use index cards to plot a novel?
The index card method helps novelists visualize and organize their story by dividing it into key turning points across a four-row layout, one row per story act. Each card represents a single scene, allowing writers to pace their novel, identify structural weaknesses, and rearrange plot points easily before drafting.

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Inside Creative Writing

Table Of Contents Formatted and Edited Transcript Talk to Us! Share This Resource

When writing a novel, it’s easy to get lost in the fog of ideas and endless possibilities. That’s where index card plotting comes in. In this episode, we explore a screenwriting method that translates perfectly to fiction: using index cards to build out your novel’s structure.

This hands-on, visual approach helps writers of all styles, plotters and pantsers alike, get a clear view of their story’s pacing, major turning points, and emotional beats. Whether you’re stuck in the messy middle or just getting started, index card plotting offers clarity and momentum.

Key takeaways include:

  • How the classic 40-card layout is used by screenwriters, and how novelists can adapt it
  • The four key turning points every story needs: inciting incident, midpoint, all-is-lost moment, and resolution
  • How to physically map out your novel for better pacing and structure
  • Tips for customizing the system to suit your writing style
  • How the index card method reduces overwhelm and unlocks creativity

If you’ve ever felt stuck or unsure of your novel’s trajectory, this is a powerful method to get you moving. For deeper story guidance, check out our full How to Write a Novel guide and listen to How to Plot a Book and Claymation and Story Structure.

Formatted and Edited Transcript

Today, we’re going to steal from the screenwriting world to hack our story plotting. We’re going to explore a card game of sorts and figure out your story.

Welcome back to Inside Creative Writing, where we help you craft authentic immersive stories one technique at a time. I’m your host, Brad Reed, and today I want to introduce you to one of my favorite tools, borrowed, or maybe stolen, from screenwriting: the index card method.

Why the Index Card Method Works

Now, if you’ve studied screenwriting at all, you’ll probably be familiar with this tried and true method of plotting and pacing a film. But if you haven’t, this could revolutionize the way that you plan and plot your story. So, with a little tweaking, we can take it from the screenwriting world and make it work for novels and even short stories as well.

This is one of those techniques that feels weirdly old school, which I kind of love. But trust me, it works. It’s flexible, it’s tactile, and it helps you see your story in a different way. And the best part? You don’t have to be a plotter to use it. Even if you’re more of a discovery writer, index cards can bring just enough structure to keep your novel from wandering off into the…

Structure as Creative Freedom

Before we dive in though, I want to pause for a second. Because if you’re not yet sold on the idea that structure matters, you’re not alone. A lot of writers resist it. I used to resist structure, too. I thought structure would cage my creativity. What I’ve learned is that structure actually frees it.

I’ve seen this play out in my creative writing classes over and over again. If I tell the students to write a story about anything they want, I get nothing but blank stares. They don’t know where to start. There are just too many possibilities. But if I give them limitations, they leap into storytelling.

So something like: write a scene where a character must leave a voicemail for someone they haven’t spoken to in over a decade. They only have 60 seconds before the recording cuts off. They can’t say why they’re calling until the final sentence.

Now notice how many rules there are to that, or how much structure there is to that prompt, but what it does is it focuses the creative mind and gets it moving. We start asking questions about that situation, about that prompt. It starts suggesting possibilities and even characters and types of conflict that we could write about because we’ve given it that structure.

Podcast Episodes on Story Structure

If you’re on the fence about using structure in your writing, I highly recommend checking out a couple of past episodes of this podcast before or after listening to this one.

The first one is called How to Plot a Book: The Secret to Strong Story Structure. That episode discusses something called the “somebody wanted but so” and “somebody needed but so” frameworks for creating a focused, cause-effect driven story structure.

You also might check out How to Plan a Book with the Snowflake Method. This is an interview with Randy Ingermanson about breaking a novel down into manageable planning steps.

And then finally, maybe my favorite one on this topic is called Claymation in Story Structure. It uses claymation as a metaphor to explain why underlying structure supports creative flexibility without limiting your expression.

Check those out if you’re still not quite sold on structure or want some different angles to look at it from; they’ll help you figure out your own approach.

What Is the Index Card Method?

So let’s get back into today’s technique. What is the index card method?

Let’s talk first about how screenwriters actually use the index card method and why it’s often based, at least for them, on a 40-card layout.

They start with 40 index cards. Now, in the world of screenwriting, structure is everything. A typical screenplay runs about 100 to 110 pages long and it follows a three-act structure almost religiously. To plan that structure, many writers use 40 index cards. What they do is lay them out in four rows of 10 cards each.

The first row, the first 10 cards, is for Act One. The second row of 10 cards is for the beginning of Act Two up to what we call the midpoint. The third row is from the midpoint to the end of Act Two. And the last 10 cards are for Act Three.

So first row: Act One. Second and third rows: Act Two, with a midpoint in there. And fourth row: Act Three.

Act One: Setup and First Turning Point

Let’s look at Act One, cards one through ten. This is the setup, basically. You’re introducing the protagonist, their world, their central problem. Each one of these cards represents a scene, a major scene, that sets up the world and lays the foundation for the story.

Somewhere around card 8 or 9 (this is flexible) we hit what we call the first major turning point. This is the moment where the story really begins and the protagonist commits to a new path. We’ve talked about this as the inciting incident. It’s not always specifically the inciting incident, but it often is.

Let’s look at some examples because that always helps.

The Hunger Games

In The Hunger Games, if we went to card 8 or 9 in our layout, we’d see that’s about when Katniss volunteers as tribute. Up until that point, she’s just surviving. We’re getting to know her and her world and the conflict. And then suddenly, when she volunteers as tribute, she can’t turn back.

Harry Potter

Let’s look at Harry Potter, too. I know there’s lots of feels about the writer of Harry Potter. I’m still using it as a source because it’s such a shared story. I’m not endorsing anything here, just using it as a common story that we’re all familiar with.

The turning point in the first Harry Potter book is when Harry boards the Hogwarts Express. Up until that moment, we’re just seeing his ordinary world. He’s under the stairs. But then he enters the magical world, where the story really takes off. That would be about card 8 or 9 in that first row of the card system.

You could go through and look at each of those scenes leading up to that and see how they’re building up to that moment. Maybe it’s card 10. Maybe it’s card 5. It’s flexible. But 8 or 9 is that sweet spot.

I’ve got a couple other examples here. If you’re curious or need some more help on this, shoot me an email at brad.reed@insidecreativewriting.com and I can send you more.

Act Two: The Midpoint Shift

So let’s go ahead and look at Act Two now.

We know that each card represents a scene in the story, or in this case, still talking about film, a scene in the movie that builds up to the end of Act One, where something big happens. Some major change throws the story into motion.

Now we’re in Act Two, the beginning of our second row of cards. This is the heart of the story. This is where we start to build tension.

In screenwriting, Act Two is often split into two halves. We start to see the character work through this new conflict, this new world they’ve been thrown into. But we’re building up to something called the midpoint, which happens at the end of that second row. The midpoint fundamentally shifts the direction of the story. Maybe it’s a big reveal, maybe it’s some kind of reversal, a sudden new goal, something gets flipped on its head about midway through the story.

When we first start planning these systems, we’re really only concerned with figuring out those main turning points. I want to start by knowing: what is my inciting incident? What is my midpoint? And then we’ll get to the third and fourth ones here in just a moment.

Midpoint in The Hunger Games

Let’s go back to The Hunger Games. So we’re looking at that row of 40 cards, or that second row of 10 cards. At the end of that second row, Katniss scores a major win with her alliance and gains a moment of safety. There’s almost a false sense of control right in the middle where the reader goes, “OK, we’re going to make it.”

And then the game makers raise the stakes again. The rules of the game change. If you know that story, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You can go to the book or screenplay, find that moment, and it’s right about smack dab in the middle of the story. The stakes have changed. Katniss now has to understand the games in a new way.

Midpoint in Harry Potter

What does it look like in Harry Potter?

In Harry Potter, it goes from kind of school adventures; there’s a lot of fun in the beginning of Act Two, right? Because we’re getting to go to magic school, getting to know the characters. But suddenly, about in the middle, something pivots. We discover something really dark is going on at Hogwarts. And Harry is now in investigation mode. He’s not just learning the system. Now he’s trying to save the place.

So that’s our second row: Act Two begins and ends with a fundamental shift at the midpoint.

End of Act Two: The All Is Lost Moment

Now, how does the third row end?

The third row ends with something often called the second turning point. It always feels like the third one to me, because that midpoint is definitely a turning point. But you may hear it referred to as the second turning point or the end of Act Two turning point.

This is where things fall apart. You’ll often hear this referred to in screenwriting as the All Is Lost moment. And I almost hesitate to teach people about this because it ruins a lot of movies. Once you’re aware of this plot point and are looking for it, you can see it clearly in almost every film ever made. There are exceptions, of course, but that All Is Lost moment is everywhere.

Everything has gone wrong. There’s no way the protagonist is going to succeed. We think: we’re done.

All Is Lost in The Hunger Games

In The Hunger Games, Rue dies. That moment where Rue dies, we see Katniss emotionally break apart. Her illusion of staying morally separate from the games is shattered. It really changes Katniss from a survivor to a rebel. But there’s that moment before she decides to be a rebel when we think as the viewer: this is it. There’s no way she’s going to overcome this.

All Is Lost in Harry Potter

In Harry Potter, the All Is Lost moment comes when Harry, Ron, and Hermione go through the trap door and are separated from the teachers. Suddenly they’re on their own. The adults can’t help anymore. They’re facing what seems like an impossible challenge without backup.

Now, there are stronger All Is Lost moments in film than this one, but again, we’re using a familiar story.

A Comedy Example: Elf

Let me see if I can find one more. Yeah, actually, I didn’t even think of it until right now. But in Elf, right? A comedy movie. Does a comedy movie have an All Is Lost moment? Absolutely. Almost every movie does.

That moment when Elf (Will Ferrell) is looking over the side of that bridge into the river. He’s lost everything. He’s lost his family. He’s lost everything he cared about. He’s looking over the side of that bridge, and we get the sense, just for a moment, that he might jump.

Elf is thinking about suicide in that moment. The script doesn’t say that or anything, he doesn’t say, “Oh, should I jump?” but we get that feeling: “Oh my gosh, all is lost here. What does he have left to live for?”

That is an excellent example of an All Is Lost moment in a comedy.

Act Three: The Resolution

So that’s the end of Act Two. We reach that All Is Lost moment. That would be the third card you want to start with, right? You want to start with the inciting event, then know your midpoint, and then define what that All Is Lost moment looks like.

And then finally, Act Three, or that final row of cards, is the resolution.

It usually starts with some big change. Something unexpected happens. The rules change. Or there’s a sudden event. In Elf, we’ll use that as an example again, Santa Claus comes down out of the sky. Will Ferrell’s character sees Santa Claus in the sleigh, and suddenly there’s life again. There’s hope again.

So Act Three starts with some kind of “Oh my gosh, maybe all isn’t lost. Maybe the protagonist can confront their biggest challenge and still reach the resolution we’re hoping for.”

The final 10 cards focus on payoff, transformation, and ultimately closure. That last card of Act Three is: How does this story end? How does it resolve?

Building Out the Full Card Layout

It’s a little hard to do in audio format, but hopefully you’re able to picture what that looks like.

To use the card system, you come up with those major turning points first. And I know I’m going over this again, but it’s so important:

  • The first row ends with the inciting incident.
  • The second row ends with the midpoint, the fundamental shift in the story.
  • The third row ends with the All Is Lost moment.
  • And the final row ends with the resolution.

Once you know those, what you do is go back and backfill the other cards, the scenes that build up to each of those points.

Why use 10 cards per row? The reason that’s so helpful is it keeps your pacing balanced. It makes sure the buildup in each act feels right. No part of the story feels rushed. No part feels too slow or like it’s plodding along.

Now is there flexibility? Of course. But this system helps you stay aware of how you’re pushing against the expected structure. If your first act is pretty long, you’ll know it, and you can make decisions from there about whether you want to take that risk or whether to cut it down.

Structure Inspires Creativity

This is not about being rigid. It feels very rigid, just like we talked about at the beginning, some rigidity actually inspires creativity. It gives us problems to solve, and we have to come up with unique plots and unique characters to make it all work.

It always feels like putting together a puzzle to me. A puzzle where you don’t have the box to look at, so you don’t even know what the picture is that you’re trying to build. This system is about knowing what needs to happen in each section of your story so you don’t drift off or kind of lose steam.

When screenwriters lay out these cards, they’re writing scenes. They’re thinking in bits of action, sometimes called beats, for how to build up to those main points. And each card focuses clarity. So basically, on each card, you’re just writing a single sentence about what happens in that scene.

If a scene doesn’t earn its place, it doesn’t get a card.

I have used this system for many stories that I’ve written, and it’s one of the best ways I’ve found to get rid of the stuff that doesn’t really matter. If you’re putting something on a card and you realize, “Oh my gosh, am I really going to waste one of my 10 cards (or whatever number I’m working with) on this scene?” No. Maybe that scene gets cut. Maybe it gets combined with another scene, and I realize I can accomplish this in a single scene.

Sometimes you’ll find scenes that need to be expanded. When you write it on your card, you’re like, “That’s not really a scene, that’s like a second of dialogue or action.” You need to figure out how to expand it to make the pacing and trajectory of the story work.

Adapting the Index Card Method for Novelists

So that’s basically how it works for screenwriters.

Now, how does this work for novelists?

For novelists, this level of focus is gold. Even if your book is 300 or 400 pages long, you can still use this approach to make sure that the major movements of your story are working together and that the pacing feels purposeful. Even if it takes a lot longer to get to these points, the pacing is still going to be there.

Instead of jumping into just, “I’m going to write an 80,000-word novel,” and jumping in blind, you can start with a simple stack of cards, each one summarizing a single scene or turning point. The visual and tactile layout helps you understand your story at a glance.

And what’s really fun is that you can carry these cards around with you and work on your story in little moments almost anywhere. If you’re chilling in a coffee shop, you can pull out your stack of cards, lay them out on the table, rearrange them, examine your story, brainstorm some linking scenes if you’re still working on that. Mix them up and see if your story works in a different order. And really watch your story take shape in a hundred different ways that isn’t rewriting pages and pages of text.

This part of the process: I love it. It is so much fun to create this card system and just start playing with your story until that big picture clicks in and you have that “aha” moment. Like, there it is. There’s my story. Even if it’s a rough idea, now you have a road map for how to get there.

Setting Up the Card System

So how do you set this up for a novel?

I always start with 40 to sometimes 60 blank index cards. Now, you can do this digitally, but I find that paper—real index cards—works super well for me. I punch holes in the corners of them so I can put one of those binder rings through it. That way, I can take them anywhere, undo the ring, and lay them out to play with them.

The classic way to do this is to put up a big cork board on the wall and use pushpins or tape them to a whiteboard or something like that. But I really like the portability of cards on a ring. That’s up to you.

What you’re going to do is write one sentence on each card describing what happens in that scene. Don’t overthink it. Just the main beat of that scene.

I love using the Somebody Wanted But So as the scene description. If you’re not familiar with why that’s helpful, we’ve done a couple of different podcasts on it. I’ll put links at the website again for those episodes so you can get familiar with that.

By using the Somebody Wanted But So, it ensures that the scene has some kind of conflict, some kind of stakes. Something is happening in that scene that justifies its place among your cards.

One card. One scene.

Optional: Color Coding

Optionally, you could color-code the cards. Some people use:

  • Blue for major plot events—those cards at the end of each act
  • Green for character development scenes
  • Yellow for subplots

There are all sorts of ways to color coordinate. Don’t worry too much about that when you’re first figuring the system out. Just use plain cards. As you get more comfortable, you’ll customize it for how your brain understands story.

You’ve got to make up your own rules for this card game.

Laying Out the Cards and Playing with Story

Basically, what you do is lay the cards out on a table or pin them to a wall—something like that, and you start creating. The world is at your fingertips here. Anything is possible. Major changes can be invented, cut, rearranged in just a few movements of your hand, rather than editing pages and pages of text that you’ve poured your soul into.

In fact, when I start writing a new novel or story, I’ll just sit down with some index cards and write scene ideas out. “It would be cool if this happened. It would be cool if that happened.” I don’t care at that point if they’re turning points or resolutions. Doesn’t matter. I just get them on cards so I can lay them out and start playing around, seeing how the story might come together.

What this gives you is a bird’s eye view of your novel. It helps you immediately notice pacing issues, dead spots, missing scenes, where you need to invent some more plot, or places where one thread disappears for too long.

You don’t need to end up with exactly 10 cards per row like a screenwriter would. That would be more like a novella at that length. But it will help you see if you’ve got an overloaded first act, or if Act Two is super thin.

Even if you’re using 15 or 20 cards per row, you’ll be able to see it at a glance. If one row is way bigger or smaller than the others, that’s a red flag. “Oh, I’ve got work to do here.”

When Structure Sparks New Creativity

And what’s fun about that is when you realize, “Oh, my second row is really short,” it drives you into that new place of creativity. You start inventing new plot ideas you never thought of. New conflicts, new directions, sometimes even new characters come to life and walk into your story because you realize, “I’ve got the space and the need to flesh this out some more.”

It goes right back to what we talked about earlier: limitations drive creativity. It’s an incredibly powerful concept to understand.

Why does this work so well? Because it forces clarity and flexibility at the same time.

It gives you clarity because if you can’t summarize a scene in one sentence, that scene probably isn’t doing enough. “Joe goes to the store” is probably not a scene that needs to make it into the novel, right? Maybe we need to flesh that out.

But it’s also flexible because it’s so easy to shuffle cards around or change them out. It’s no big deal to throw away an index card, grab a new one, write a new scene idea, and play with it. You’re not deleting 2,000 words, you’re just moving a little card around.

It also helps with pacing. With cause and effect. You can see how your scenes connect together, and you can see the emotional rhythm of your story—not just what happens, but how it feels.

I love being able to lay my story out in these cards and “read” it just by walking through the beats and scenes in a few minutes.

Using the Index Card Method During Drafting

What I’ve found is that this system isn’t just helpful for plotting and getting ready for a rough draft, it actually helps me while I’m drafting.

My card system becomes my rough draft roadmap. Once I’m actually driving that road, things change. That’s no big deal. I add a new card, shift things around, make sure the story stays intact.

Maybe I’m writing my midpoint and I hate it; it’s just not working. I can stop at that point, write a new midpoint, reshuffle some cards, create new ones, and get my story back together.

Wise Words About Structure

Let’s look at some wise words today, because structure is definitely talked about among many writers.

The first is from James Scott Bell, author of Plot & Structure. He says:

“Structure is not a prison, but the skeleton that gives shape and strength to your story.”

I love that. It’s basically the same concept I used in the episode on Claymation, how the armature of a claymation character can work as a metaphor for the kind of structure we build into story.

Here’s another from Stephen King. Now, Stephen King is famous for being kind of anti-structure. If you’ve read his book On Writing, which is fantastic, he really hammers that idea of not starting with a plot.

But here’s what he says about structure:

“I don’t start with a plan. But once I have something down, I step back and look for structure. If it’s not there, it doesn’t work.”

So even Stephen King, this well-known proponent of starting without a plan, says at some point he stops and makes sure he’s naturally built structure in. If it’s not there, he rewrites.

You could almost think of it like building a house versus putting up a tent.

Building a house, you start with a plan. You start with a foundation and skeletal structure, then build.

Stephen King’s approach is more like pitching a tent. You lay it all out on the ground—no structure—and then you prop it up with the poles. You give it structure after it’s already been spread out.

That’s the way Stephen King approaches it. He just gets into writing, makes a mess on the page, and then he goes back and props it up with the structure that it needs.

Really, either way works. It’s whatever system works best for you.

Weekly Challenge: Reverse Engineering with Index Cards

So, for our weekly challenge: this one’s going to be a little bit different.

The challenge could be something as simple as starting to write some cards for a story. But what I want to do instead is build off our recent episode called Reading Like a Writer, where we talked about learning deep craft elements by really analyzing stories.

So here’s the challenge: consider creating a set of index cards for one of your favorite example novels. One of those three or so novels you go back to again and again for inspiration.

Go through that novel, or you could do this with a film, and actually create the index cards that show the structure. For each scene (sometimes that’s each chapter, but not always), write down what’s happening. What is the main movement or beat of that part of the story?

When you’re done, lay those cards out. See if it shows a three-act structure, or maybe something else. Then notice how differently you see that novel now, once you can see the skeleton underneath it.

If you do this, I’d love for you to share that experience in the comments over at Inside Creative Writing. Just look up this podcast episode on the website and you’ll see the comment section at the bottom of that page. I’d love to talk about it with you there.

Final Thoughts and Resources

If you’re writing a novel and you feel stuck, overwhelmed, or just tired of rereading the same scenes over and over without knowing where it’s all going—try the index card method.

Grab some cards. Lay out your story. Give yourself permission to play.

If you’re looking for more help on structuring your novel, definitely go back and listen to the episodes I mentioned earlier. They’ll be linked on the website. They’ll walk you through what story structure is really about and why it’s so important.

Even if you hate outlining, this method can be really, really fun.

I hope you’ll also check out the full How to Write a Novel guide over at insidecreativewriting.com. It walks you through every stage, from the idea to draft to revision, the whole thing.

And I do want to plug one thing that I just built this week over on the website: Five Minute Writing Prompts. It’s an automated little program you’ll find right on the site. You click a button and it randomly gives you a five-minute writing prompt.

These aren’t your usual prompts. They’re really specific to the kind of work we do here at Inside Creative Writing. They lean into some of the concepts we talked about in this episode. I use them myself when I don’t feel like writing or don’t feel creative. I’ll pop one up, write for five minutes, and it gets the wheels turning.

They’re great for warming up, but also for reimagining a scene or trying something from a new angle. So if that sounds interesting, head over to the site, search for “Five Minute Writing Prompts,” and try it out. You can even suggest a prompt, if you want to. That would be awesome.

Until next time, keep writing, keep experimenting, and remember: the best way to improve as a writer is, of course, by writing.

I’m off to get some words on the page, or maybe some words on some index cards, and I hope you are, too!

Thanks for listening.

Talk to Us!

We’d love to hear from you! If you have a question, a comment, a suggestion, or just want to tell us about your work-in-progress, give us a shout!
info@insidecreativewriting.com

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