I’m not suggesting you run out and buy shares in Post-Its, although, given the number of stationery obsessives populating the internet and writerly circles (you know who  you are!), that may be sound  – albeit totally unqualified – advice. This is more of a ‘note to self’, as I am going to map out my novel-in-progress on flip-chart paper, using the  cheap but joyous felt-tips I bought last year in a fit of ‘Back To School’ self-improvement. And using highly visible, quirkily shaped Post-It notes. Lots of them. All over the place.

It has recently come to my attention that I am not, as I have thought all my life, a  verbal learner. If you believe in learning ‘styles,’ you would apparently class me as a visual person. I like to be shown things. It is true that I do not like to be ‘told’, and the survey I did last week at college does not lie (but if it did, would it tell you? Aaaagh!).

So when I’ve been writing out synopses of my novel and summaries of key narrative events in a chronological, linear, black-and- white fashion, I should have been playing with characters and themes and incidents via pictograms and story boards and Venn diagrams and arty stuff I normally avoid because I am supposed to be ‘wordy.’

A pictorial approach may lead me into uncharted mental territories but will be worth it if I get to buy some star-shaped fluorescent orange stickers. Can you get  lime and lemon  scented highlighters? Maybe I should get a noticeboard and push pins with sweetie-coloured heads, or Cath Kidston pegs on a little washing line?

I suspect I may be getting bogged down in the detail. Rendered stationary by stationery. But I will give the story boarding/diagram thing a go.And  I will keep you ‘posted’ (chortle, chortle). The important thing is to allow myself to wander between and beyond the lines.