How do you organise your writing?

[Michael Coorlim]

Scrivener:

• Research Folder
  • General notes for brainstorming
  • One doc per character detailing physiology/sociology/psychology/etc
    • Each character's emotional arc, dramatic need, etc.
  • Plot structure broken down scene by scene with copious notes of what happens and how it ties in to the above
• Story
  • Folders for each chapter
    • Individual files for each scene

Spreadsheet (per series):

• List of all characters I've introduced so I don't reuse names. Includes who they are and what book they were introduced in.
• Timeline including backstory events and events of the books. Includes all lead characters' birthdates.
• Notes on spells/inventions/technology/etc introduced organized by book.

 

[Vaz]

With Ultimate Chaos

2 Notebooks... For general thoughts on the WIP, Scenes & Character details...

One word doc for whatever WiP I may be working on.

 

[Ogma]

I use scrivener and keep track of progress on excel. Scrivener is really handy because I can build my writing directly into my mobi files etc. I use NoteMaster on my phone to keep track of any stray ideas.

 

[prizzley]

Until last week it was Word 2007 for almost everything, plus One Note for characters and Excel for names. Since then I said Yes at the wrong moment and I'm now working on Mac Pages. Pros: it finds missing end quotes! Cons: my beautifully organised computer files are all over the place. It going to take me weeks to organise. Oh, and there's no equivalent to One Note.

Actually, there's very little difference between Word and Pages. The conversion of my WIP worked, keeping all formatting, except Chapter Start, and I've since worked out how to rectify that.

I also have huge piles of handwritten (scrawled) notes, which I usually manage to read. I have more trouble with the overnight notes, written in the dark. But I flatly refused to trot downstairs at 4am to power up the computer.

 

[Rafellin]

But I flatly refused to trot downstairs at 4am to power up the computer.

Distressing lack of dedication...

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I keep a charged Netbook with fast booting Flash instead of HDD beside the bed, as well as a paper notepad. But if a significant thought, then I go to the Library (next room) and power up the serious laptop.

 

[Maieius]

I have more trouble with the overnight notes, written in the dark. But I flatly refused to trot downstairs at 4am to power up the computer.

I have an iPad that's connected to my iMac and makes writing SO much easier at night. It automatically connects the files you have open and so you can continue on the computer almost instantly.

I go to the Library (next room) and power up the serious laptop.

I wish I had a library

 

[Ray McCarthy]

a library

It used to have four children, in two sets of bunks.

I have an ancient server in the Attic, on a UPS. Sharing files isn't a problem.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Scrivener. Lets me concentrate on being creative instead of housekeeping.

Down the left is your story tree which grows, obviously, as you story does - I put chapters in folders (Friday Night, Saturday AM, 1347) - and each scene is a text file. (Kate's twin grief, Kate considers Emory, Willie Calls Emory, Willie Visists Emory). Then lower down you have your character sheets and research. I just love Scrivener like red bounty!



pH

 

[Glitch]

I was using Word with one document per chapter and Excel to track a running word count. I've now switched to Scrivener which is much easier for organising a novel. I use the colour coding to track which scene/chapter is in which POV. The one line description is handy when needing to jump back and fore between chapters.

I recently exported a completed novel from Scrivener to Word and it highlighted several of Scrivener's shortcomings in the word processing arena. A few repeated words, some extra spaces between words, capitals where there should or shouldn't be, then's instead of than's etc... Also it seems Scrivener prefers US English to UK English for certain words even though the dictionary is set to UK English.

If you're using Scrivener and plan to us its features to create your ebook to self publish. I would highly recommend exporting your document and running it through Word or another dedicated word processing application before proceeding.

Note: I'm using the Windows version of Scrivener. The Mac version may be different.

 

[Ursa major]

It used to have four children, in two sets of bunks

...but since then, they've tightened up the child-labour laws....

 

[Ray McCarthy]

they've tightened up the child-labour laws

None of them ever fitted chimneys and the Zinc mine at Silvermines Mountain is closed long ago.

 

[Ursa major]

I use the colour coding to track which scene/chapter is in which POV.

I do this, kind** of, but apply the colour not to the text, but to (character***) styles associated with each PoV character (and, separately, their dialogue**** and their thoughts), which means that I can check, using Find, for examples of where I've got them using words that they wouldn't usually use (because, sadly, I find it very difficult to put myself 100% into their characters when writing their scenes).


** - As it happens, all the PoV narratives are black, as it's usually clear who the PoV character is (if only by looking at the Style box at the top left hand if the Word window) and, because head-hopping is not allowed, a scene is only ever in one character's PoV. The same is true for the PoV character's thoughts , although they're all in italics. By contrast , all the dialogue is colour-coded, because these are rather harder to keep track of, so the colour can be a handy reminder.

*** - In Word, there are paragraph styles and character styles. As one would expect, a character style can be applied to characters with a paragraph (meaning that I can have the paragraph in one character's PoV style, but dialogue in another PoV^^ character's dialogue style).

**** - Because, sadly, I'm far more organised when doing this sort of micromanagement of files than I am with the actual creation of the books, I use styles that don't appear on the page. For instance, all the dialogue styles are based on a style called Dialogue Source. (There used to be a good reason for this -- although I can't for the life of me recall what it was -- but it remains in the numerous files^^^.

^^ - Actually, there are important characters who do not have their own PoV scenes who do get their own dialogue styles.

^^^ - A book is all in a single Word file (.doc or .docx depending on the date of creation), but I never edit without creating a new generation (as a result of my first proper experience of computing being with the George 3 operating system, which automatically created a new generation of a file when editing).

 

[AnyaKimlin]

None of them ever fitted chimneys and the Zinc mine at Silvermines Mountain is closed long ago.

I have the same trouble the buggers won't stop growing.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

the buggers won't stop growing

They do eventually, then mostly they leave home. But if you have enough of them there will be one that's inclined to stay. I'm not an Eagle ...

 

[AnyaKimlin]

They do eventually, then mostly they leave home. But if you have enough of them there will be one that's inclined to stay. I'm not an Eagle ...

I've definitely got Eagle in me Mine have started talking about moving out when they get to about 8 so I don't know about the 6 year old now.

 

[Gonk the Insane]

I tend to keep things fairly simple. I have 3 MS Word documents. One for the novel. A second doc contains the outline, and plot threads. As I write I populate the cast of characters in here, too, and I have a numbered list - one entry for each chapter - that lists the POV character, and a few words that summarise what happens in the chapter. If the chapter's split between 2 POV characters, I have a second, indented entry (bulleted rather than numbered) and a description of what happens from that character's POV. It may sound silly, but it gives me an easy way to see the overall structure and at the same time make sure that no-one has too many/too few chapters.

A third doc contains all the extracts, bits where I've written a passage and stripped it out, either re-writing or replacing with something different. So far, though, I don't think I've ever gone back into it.

For versioning, I write the first draft, then each subsequent edit is simply saved under a new version number.

Although Word has always served me well, I'm curious about Scrivener - most people seem to be either love it/hate it - and I'm planning to give it a road test and see how it works out.