How do you organise your writing?

[Purdy Bear]

All my writing is in a complete mess, and I was wondering how you organise yours?

Im OK with my stuff on the PC, I just use folders for those, and then in chapter order, its more the scribbles, stationery, ideas, printed off research.

Im in a cascade of paper and would love some of your great ideas to help me out.

Thanks
Purdy

PS I dont like saving stuff on discs as Iv lost a complete book that way with faulty ones.

 

[Gary Compton]

If you have a AOL or Google mail account you can email yourself with the folders you want to keep. Then save them in "Save mail."

They will stay on there for the rest of time so if your PC blows up your covered

All you need to do is open the file and Save as!

 

[Nik]

I'm only a struggling amateur, but I've learned to keep incremental work-files --.txt for compactness-- and multiple back-ups. Cloud storage sounds nice, a slide-mount E:-drive is good, my pair of big NAS boxes may be over-kill.

One cautionary 'gotcha': I used to do a lot of CAD and 3D modelling, spent a long time organising my eclectic mesh downloads library on CAD-tower's slide-mount E: drive, backed up on this Browser PC's identical E: drive.

Then the CAD E-drive crashed horribly. I was still trouble-shooting and recovering from that when this PC's E-drive died, too. Yeah, verily, it was a bad batch of drives. Happens I retrieved *most* of those files from upload/download C: directories as the original zips, but I also lost their index so I'll never be sure what I've lost...
{FX: Weep...}

I post a lot of my stories to reading and discussion groups, have their archives for late drafts. I also laser-print and ring-bind stories: Proggyfont for editing, Arial for keeps...

 

[HareBrain]

I'm very disorganised when it comes to background notes and scribblings. Most of it is on the PC, but in several different files, some of which contradict each other. My notes on just how I should revise ch11 are in three different places. I like to think this chaos is somehow part of the creative process, but it probably isn't.

 

[Jon Sprunk]

I write myself a lot of notes. When I get back to work, the first thing I do is transfer these notes into the proper files on my computer. I keep a backup on external hard drive, but that's about it.

 

[Interference]

I let myself get thoroughly confused and then, after a couple of years, go back and start all over again.

On other occasions, I keep a close eye on the date-stamps of works that are similarly named and use a numbering sequence for "completed" versions. If I see an ODT or an RTF as well as a generic DOC of the same name, I figure I'd thought that version concluded and ready for sending out (usu. as an RTF - I use ODT for archiving and usually put these on a portable/USB back-up drive).

Notes and ideas are kept in CHARACTER or EVENT folders within STORY title folders. These aren't usually very long, except for story outlines, but where possible I maintain folders separately for TREATMENT, SYNOPSIS, CHARACTERS, EVENTS and UNUSED, this last being either nice writing or neat events that don't actually fit in the final version of the manuscript. I try not to throw things away and it's often very satisfying to read forgotten extracts and realise that they're actually quite good or that they only need a few tweeks to make them usable in something else.

Some of what I've said here is more "what I should do" than "what I do" but I come pretty close to doing most of my work this way, with obvious variations for art or music.

 

[The Judge]

If you prefer to keep to paper, rather than transcribe everything onto your computer, then I think it's a case of investing in folders and box files.

I have large (A4 size) spiral bound notebooks in which I write notes, ideas, research etc. I don't attempt to put, say, all the medical research into one section of the notebook, but just start writing on the next available page so everything is in roughly chronological order (I try to date everything as well) -- though if I don't fill the entire page, I might add a later piece of medical research on the end there, if it fits. I number the pages as I'm going and keep a very rough index at the beginning of each book.

At the moment this works fine -- I can find things relatively quickly and easily, but I'm only just about to start my third notebook, so I might be singing a different tune by number ten! I had intended to keep each novel to one notebook, but that kind of slipped when I had to revisit number 1 to make amendments while number 2 was still being written -- but since they are part of the same series that isn't much of a problem. I think if I was embarking on a very different novel, I would have to start a new book and keep it wholly separate.

For printed out research and newspaper cuttings, photos etc I have a box file with different folders labelled appropriately eg medical, scientific, miscellaneous. At this point I don't have enough cuttings to warrant further sub-divisions, but obviously this is an option. These items are more for generating ideas than helping with plot etc, so it isn't so important to me to know what is in each folder, as I'm not needing to sort through them in a hurry. If it was necessary, then numbering the cuttings and preparing some kind of index would be the logical next step.

J

 

[Boneman]

I have to admit to organised chaos: I save to my hard drive, and memory stick, and email them to myself. I do print off chapters to paper, so I can scan/read easier, so I have large files that I store them in, with all my scribbles on them. I currently have 4 versions of book 1 in paper form, but I do save the rainforest by printing them double-sided and single spaced, and only using recycled paper. There is a 'whatif' file in my cabinet that runs to about 40 pages, and that's the one I'll rush in and save in the fire - I guess that's telling me I need to commit it to the PC! When I re-read it periodically, i find all sorts of ideas I'd written down and forgotten!

 

[goldhawk]

Organize? We're suppose to organize too?

Actually, I have a folder for every story. For short stories, inside its folder, a file for the story and one for its front matter. For novels, a file for front matter and a file for each chapter. In the story folder, there may appear other folders called Characters, Reference, and Notes (or they may not) and they might contain other files.

Mainly, my organization is organic (where ever it ends up).

 

[Ursa major]

Me?

A folder for the tetralogy, beneath which are folders for the Books, plus those for notes, synopses, character files, statitistics(!), etc. Beneath each book folder there are folders for the Issues** and, beneath these, for each Draft. I don't have separate folders for individual chapters***; what I do have is a generation number system (based on my experience of the George III operating system, that did this sort of thing automatically), whereby significant edits (or a day's worth of smaller edits) are placed in a new generation of the book. So I end up with file names such as: BookName Issue 1 Draft 7 2c.doc, which would be the 29th generation of draft seven of issue one of BookName. Once saved, the file is copied to the appropriate folder on a USB stick and then copied to another PC (my spare desktop, which I keep at my mother's house).

For printing (for my own use), I keep to double spacing, but I print the file double-sided and two pages to a side.




** - If the book has been sent anywhere significant - an agent, a competition (e.g. the W&A Yearbook Centenary one) - I up-issue.

*** - I don't like chapter files. Having worked on huge technical documents, with many (200+ page) chapters, one has to start using issue control. In the case of a book, one has to note which version of each chapter is associated with (= is part of) which drafts of the whole book. If you like lots of chapters and lots of drafts, this soon becomes nightmarish.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Organize?

My thought exactly.

 

[Xelah]

I don't. Organization means my left brain is taking over in the creative process. That side of my brain needs as much rest as it can get before I get to any proofreading... because it's like a triathlon at that point.

I've got one really long document of "snips" or parts of stories I've written that do not currently fit into anything I'm working on. It could be something only a paragraph long, or it could be an entire scene between multiple characters. I've got scifi next to fantasy next to mystery.

If something faces the chopping block in a novel I'm working on, it goes to the snip document. If something just comes to me while sitting and drinking tea one day, it goes into the snip document. It's sitting at 47,000 words. I'd have half a novel if I could figure out why the butler killed the werewolf on board a starship.

 

[Interference]

That's all that's holding you back?

 

[reiver33]

I go down the 'e-mail' to self route as most of what I write starts as postings on this website. If it grows then I have a folder for each narrative containing the various extracts on the PC at home.

As I don't formally organised my work I carry it - for good or ill - around in my head. Where I need some technical reference then its generally printed off the internet, kicks around for a while either in the bag I take to work or by the home PC, then gets binned/lost/shredded by the cat (repeat as required).

 

[Sapheron]

No organisation here, and I don't particularly feel the need to change that. I have my writing folder, pc wise. Some things that are related sit in a sub-folder together, others aren't. Some completely unrelated stuff is in a sub-folder together. Why, you ask? Your guess is as good as mine. Many things sit loose in the main folder. Other are in a mysterious folder named 'Geography Coursework' which I believe is a relic of my highschool days. Again, I couldn't say why this folder is in with my writing, nor how writing ended up in it.

As for hand written stuff... that's a mess even by my standards. There's completely unrelated stuff on single tatty pieces of paper, let alone in the same pile on the floor. Oh, and there is a pile on the floor, a mighty huge one. That'll never get tidied up.

 

[fkatona]

None whatsoever.

Half is at home, and half is at work, and the stuff at work I disguise to keep the network admins at bay. For example: my latest edit is saved as '2007 General Ledger Deletions'. God forbid I actually need to find that file.

 

[dreamhunter]

I'd have half a novel if I could figure out why the butler killed the werewolf on board a starship.

Because he felt a sudden hunger pang, he's sick and tired of spirulina pills, and he thought he'd try a new recipe, with a nice, thick, juicy slab of werewolf ham.

But he'd need a silver pan, at least 99.9% purity, to neutralise the werewolf genes in the meat.

 

[J-WO]

I'd have half a novel if I could figure out why the butler killed the werewolf on board a starship.

It forgot to wipe its paws before going on board?


As for organisizzzing (Sorry, Taxi Driver reference) I have about ten notebooks with story drafts, novel sections and general ideas spread across their pages like butter.

Somehow, I know where everything is. I must use the same part of the brain mothers do who can instantly tell their twins apart.

Judging by the comments thus far, writers seem to fall into two camps. To use a creaky SF simile, some have a relation to their notes like a federation crew has to its ship (neatly boxed and preplanned), others have one like the Doctor has to his Tardis (a whole lot of instinct and a dollop of sheer luck).
I'm definitely the latter.

 

[Ursa major]

I'd have half a novel if I could figure out why the butler killed the werewolf on board a starship.

It's the butler's early training, I expect, when - as a waiter - he'd have learnt about silver service.

 

[Culhwch]

I let myself get thoroughly confused and then, after a couple of years, go back and start all over again.

Sounds about right to me.