Organizing
Organizing. I've been writing this word a lot lately since I have to take Management and Organization as a summer course.
So it got me thinking, could I organize my writing notes in a more efficient (writing this word a lot too) way?
Currently: I have one word document that is my actual novel and one word document that is my notes. The notes page isn't necessarily disorganized, it's just not as neat as my perfectionist brain would like it to be.
In order I have:
Description of characters
The "Situation"
the Creatures and their descriptions (highlighted with what the readers and characters know and not highlighted with what I know)
A few sentences with what I want to happen in this book (I'm thinking trilogy here)
It's not a lot of notes. I could have more but a word document allows me to go back and change my notes, add in more or change a creature as I want to.
I tried using a notebook but it ended up with a lot of discarded pages when I ran out of room to change my notes or it looked too messy.
Notice I don't have an OUTLINE.
This is a big thing for writers. NaNo and other writers have encouraged me to use outlines and I have tried it. It doesn't work for me. Chapters end up being too short or too long or I keep going and accidentally merge two chapters. Or, (my biggest problem) the outline causes me to lose interest in my project.
Yup, that's right.
When I write I like to know the beginning and the end. I don't want to know what happens in between or how the characters get to the end. I like that to come in surprises as I write. If I complete an outline then I know what happens in the middle and so I don't feel the need to finish the project (thus the end of my NaNo writing 2 years ago)
A writer friend and I were discussing organizing our notes the other day and outlining came up.
She brought up a very good point on accidentally writing her stories into a corner where there is no clear path.
With knowing the ending I know that they need to take the path to get there, what happens along the way is a complete surprise so I haven't found any accidental dead ends (yet).
Some people have said, "wouldn't knowing the ending be what discourages you from finishing?" I guess I'm different in that aspect. This is why spoilers don't bother.
"So and so from Example TV show died!" Would prevent some people from watching that episode because now it's ruined. But I want to know what led up to their death, how did they die?!
Recent example: Stupid Instagram let me know the winner of Master Chef Jr. when I still had 2 more episodes on Hulu to watch. How dare they! But I still had to know how they won, what they made, did they mess up? Was Gordan Ramsey a dick? (That last one answers itself)...
I am more of a journey person than an ending person so knowing the end doesn't bother me one bit.
Organizing my notes on the other hand, bothers me a lot. The other day I had a whole 2 hours to write. Instead I organized my notes into neat outline form, highlighting, bolding, italicizing and changing font colors.
This did nothing as I didn't add any new information, I didn't change anything to my notes, I simply wasted time.
Instead of jumping back to it I reorganized my notes AGAIN!
So it got me thinking, could I organize my writing notes in a more efficient (writing this word a lot too) way?
Currently: I have one word document that is my actual novel and one word document that is my notes. The notes page isn't necessarily disorganized, it's just not as neat as my perfectionist brain would like it to be.
In order I have:
Description of characters
The "Situation"
the Creatures and their descriptions (highlighted with what the readers and characters know and not highlighted with what I know)
A few sentences with what I want to happen in this book (I'm thinking trilogy here)
It's not a lot of notes. I could have more but a word document allows me to go back and change my notes, add in more or change a creature as I want to.
I tried using a notebook but it ended up with a lot of discarded pages when I ran out of room to change my notes or it looked too messy.
Notice I don't have an OUTLINE.
This is a big thing for writers. NaNo and other writers have encouraged me to use outlines and I have tried it. It doesn't work for me. Chapters end up being too short or too long or I keep going and accidentally merge two chapters. Or, (my biggest problem) the outline causes me to lose interest in my project.
Yup, that's right.
When I write I like to know the beginning and the end. I don't want to know what happens in between or how the characters get to the end. I like that to come in surprises as I write. If I complete an outline then I know what happens in the middle and so I don't feel the need to finish the project (thus the end of my NaNo writing 2 years ago)
A writer friend and I were discussing organizing our notes the other day and outlining came up.
She brought up a very good point on accidentally writing her stories into a corner where there is no clear path.
With knowing the ending I know that they need to take the path to get there, what happens along the way is a complete surprise so I haven't found any accidental dead ends (yet).
Some people have said, "wouldn't knowing the ending be what discourages you from finishing?" I guess I'm different in that aspect. This is why spoilers don't bother.
"So and so from Example TV show died!" Would prevent some people from watching that episode because now it's ruined. But I want to know what led up to their death, how did they die?!
Recent example: Stupid Instagram let me know the winner of Master Chef Jr. when I still had 2 more episodes on Hulu to watch. How dare they! But I still had to know how they won, what they made, did they mess up? Was Gordan Ramsey a dick? (That last one answers itself)...
I am more of a journey person than an ending person so knowing the end doesn't bother me one bit.
Organizing my notes on the other hand, bothers me a lot. The other day I had a whole 2 hours to write. Instead I organized my notes into neat outline form, highlighting, bolding, italicizing and changing font colors.
This did nothing as I didn't add any new information, I didn't change anything to my notes, I simply wasted time.
Instead of jumping back to it I reorganized my notes AGAIN!
My computer has this fancy word document that is in the form of a notebook with tabs and everything. So I can flip through and find what I am looking for more efficiently. Each tab also has endless pages so I can continue to add where desired.
It helps keep me more organized so I don't feel the need to waster more productive time (now if I could get off twitter.. I swear its a blackhole)
I don't have my actual novel in this fancy tabular notebook document because I like to be able to have my notes and novel side by side.
I took a screenshot to show you how they are side by side but I don't want to give you guys another preview just yet! 😉 (PS. did you know in blogger you can draw the emoji you are looking for? I think that's awesome!)
Also, this is why I spend so much time organizing everything. My brain is so unorganized that I need everything written down to make sure I have every piece of information,
I use word documents and folders within folders for all of my projects.
I use Evernote to plan my days (and write down new project ideas)
I use my four different calendars that all overlap each other
I am an organizing neat freak.
What do you use?
Word documents?
Apps?
Notebooks?
Sticky notes?
A bunch of small scrap pieces of paper flying around your house?
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