My first attempts at plotting did not go well. I would get out all of my instructional books, grab a notebook and sit, and think, and hope that inspiration would strike, give up and not plot, not write, and not make any progress on my novel. It wasn’t pretty.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get anywhere. It was just too overwhelming. It was like planning a trip across the U.S. and trying to choose every exit, every hotel, and every bathroom break before getting started. It would be an efficient trip, but not a very joyous one!

Still, I was determined that this time I would plot out the various aspects of my novel before beginning. Why? Because as a natural born Pantser, I often found myself running into dead ends.

Then one day I realized something. When I’m traveling, I use my GPS. It allows me…