A story map is a picture of a story. Draw your sequence of events in five bubbles: beginning, beginning-middle, middle, middle-end, end. Think of set-up, climax, conclusion. Surround your story bubbles with smaller ones that depict your characters’ actions and reactions to the events. This is a great tool to help you organize your story. You can also do this using index cards. Use one color for events and a different color for your characters. This allows more flexibility in your play with all the possibilities.