Time To Get Organized

[iholdthesky]

 

So when we last left our heroine, she was trying to get organized.  HA!  If you knew me, you'd laugh, too.  :)  Nevertheless, if I can do it, you can do it--I promise.  Having said that, you've seen my desk, right?

I'm not going to put you through that horror again--so instead let's look at my writing files.

Everyone has their own preferences about where they store stuff online.  For me, it's Google.  I use it everywhere and it's easy to get to on all my devices.  However, I know there are other options out there.  So you do you and maybe something I say here will help improve things.

For the past few years, though, I've had a bad habit of not organizing my Google Docs inside my Google Drive, and when I needed to find something just used the Search feature--which didn't work as often as it worked.  Ugh.

But now I was on a mission--so I'd need to really get serious, because once this was done I wasn't going to waste another second trying to find something!

I quickly Google-searched (see what I did there?--ha!) how to organize my Google Drive and guess what?  Not only can you create folders you can color code them.  Be still my heart!  :D  Now, things were going to get fun!

Ok, if at this point you're shaking your head at me let me just remind you I am a writer.  We frequently are so focused on whatever we're creating that real life doesn't matter until it rises up and slaps us in the face--so give me a break, ok?  

Anyway--so the process of creating folders, color coding them and dragging or moving my docs into them was very therapeutic--I am an organized person at heart, I've just convinced myself over the years that I don't have time to organize.  Finally realizing the importance of making time was a real eye-opener, and ever since I've done so, fitting writing into my very busy work life has been exponentially easier.

What kind of folders did I create?

I made one for my novel in progress, one for my fan fiction and one for my blog posts, with subfolders inside them for things like work in progress, characters, freewriting idea snippets, research, scenes. 

Any reference material I wanted to see when I first open the folder I left as a separate document with no folder of its own.  For me, these are things such as The Three Acts, my latest writer's group submission needing corrections, and the freewriting idea I'm working through at the moment.

This is probably a good time to mention that I tend to write in a very cinematographic process, where scenes often come to me out of sequence.  I write them as they come to me and work out later where and how they fit in--hence the "scenes" folder.

I also made a separate folder for writing deadlines and tracking, to have a place to record where my current projects are in their development and any other projects I have waiting in the wings.

Next, my goal was to look at what I had previously organized in Scrivener.  Oh, you don't know about Scrivener?  Well, here's a link. 

I looked around at a lot of different writing software types before I chose this one--and I mostly use it to organize my research.  I like to have pictures of how things might look in my stories--locations, items and even characters--to reference as I write.  Sometimes if I'm somewhere that makes me think about my story I'll snap a quick pic.  But I also save links to articles and just all kinds of things that I might want to go back to later.

The question may arise at this point: why have Scrivener when I'm using Google Docs?  Sadly, Scrivener doesn't have a web based version--so I can only access it from my computer.  It does back up (by my choice) in the cloud, in case of a crash.  And I am slowly moving research I have saved in the cloud over to it to have everything in once place.  ;)  The process of syncing Scrivener with Google Drive is so laborious it's faster if I do everything manually.  But I like everything else Scrivener does so much it's worth the effort to me.

I can record voice notes with my phone and send a transcription text file to be imported, or drag and drop a relevant audio file into Scrivener if I so choose.  ;)  

I created templates for each character and setting in my current book, and can add details as they occur to me.  I google searched some likely pictures of locations and saved the ones I like.  Sometimes I see the characters being played by certain actors I like, and use them as character photos.  The templates contain details of the characters' lives and motivations--just anything I think would be important to give them more depth.

The Research and Notes section contains everything from info on typical character types that give me a starting point to research on specific things for the project--such as life in a circus, for one section of the book.  Since my novel is a contemporary crime story, I have a section also containing Clues and Evidence.  One of my characters is  obsessed with the sixties, so I have an entire section on that--because I was only ten in 1969.  

No, really, I was.  :: glares at you ::

And, yes, there's even a section for my actual manuscript.  But I have to confess that this software (as most are) is huge and can be overwhelming to learn.  In the interest of organization, though, I decided to take a class and learn every detail of it.  Here's the one I found and it's awesome!

Gwen Hernandez Classes

So as long as I don't get too wrapped up in research and notes I should be fine.  And these will be great things to work on when I am having an off day, creatively.

SO--now I should be able to find everything, right??

What organization system do you use?   I'd love to know!


Next time--let's talk about writer's groups, pros and cons.  :)

Comments

[adoptedwriter]

I miss the days of your writing group.

Aw...

[iholdthesky]

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