by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Today’s post doesn’t have the most exciting topic: organization. But if there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that being able to quickly put my hands on writing-related files makes everything easier. This post is part of a short series I’m doing on making our lives easier as writers.
Organizing Story Files
Everybody will want to find their own method of keeping their files straight. What works for me is keeping it all together in a folder on Word. So, for example, with my current WiP, I have a folder entitled Fit to Be Tied (the title of the book). Inside that folder, I have everything relating to that book…its cover (I have my covers made early), the book description, the outline, my ‘things to fix’ document, and the story itself.
After the book’s been edited and published, I make a subfolder inside the main folder and put old files in there (I’m funny about not tossing old files. I want to keep them, but don’t want to get confused). The latest files (the finished book, etc.) remain in the main folder.
Deleting Revised Covers and Ebook Files
This could mean drafts of covers, revised ebook files, etc. If you’re anything like me, I have a ton of these things and they can make life very confusing. Let’s say I’m formatting a book for PDF…but I’m not happy with the way the finished product is, so I tinker with the original file and reformat it. Then it’s almost perfect, but I want to make a small change, so I do. Now I have three different PDF files of the same title. In the short term, it’s easy enough for me to figure out which one is the final file: the properties will show the time it was created and the latest one would be the one I’d want. But months or a year later when I’m wanting to update something, it takes time to make sure it’s the correct file.
The same goes for corrected translated books, revised covers, updated mobi and epub files.
To make things easier, I have Word folders for Mobi files by series, epub files by series, PDF files, translations, etc. I put the final files (at least final for the time being) in the corresponding folders and then delete the older ones.
Backing Up Files
This is my semi-annual reminder, ha! Backing up your work makes your life easier…it just doesn’t immediately seem that way. But if we spend three months or more working on a book and then it just disappears, that’s a disaster. I like the backups that occur automatically (you can search those up online…Dropbox is one of them), but I also manually back up to a server and USBs. I also upload to Google docs. In the past, I’ve emailed files to myself, too. Nothing like a little paranoia to keep from losing content!
I’m a little bit of an organizational nerd, so I’d love to hear how everybody else keeps their stuff straight! How do you make your life easier by managing your files?
Make Life Easier By Keeping Your Files Organized: Click To TweetPhoto on Visual hunt
I do keep my books in separate files – the manuscript, details about the book, and all tour dates and such. Well, for the most part. A few strays are with the rest of the Word files. I do back up my external hard drive once a week and more often when I’m actively working on a project. I’m not losing all that work!
Promo-related activities/blog tour info…good point! That’s a good tip.
I agree with you, Elizabeth, that keeping everything organized is crucial. I do the same thing you do in having one large folder for each novel, and then everything related to that novel in that folder. I also try to give drafts of novels different titles or numbers, so I don’t confuse them. You’re right that it can be hard to tell them apart otherwise. And as far as online storage goes, I would never be without it any more. Not only does it keep my stuff safe in case my computer goes, but it also means I can work anywhere.
I like the way you keep your drafts straight–very smart!
I’m a little zealous about organization as well. I haven’t completely figured out the folder system on my MacBook tho, so it’s not as great as it was on a PC. Getting there!
I adore Scrivener for helping with the organization features as well. Keeping all the research and other information for the book is one place is priceless!
I’m scary organized with that stuff. I don’t delete things, but I do move old versions and covers into a file within the file and name it “old.”
That’s a good way of handling it…I can’t even imagine how many drafts and cover drafts you’re wrangling as a publisher!
I come from a software development background where organization if source files (those files that go into creating a piece of software) is crucial. This has lead me to treat each story as a writing project identified by an id. This involves a naming convention for each component of a project and a set of directories for each phase of the project. You can see some of that file organization here: https://fritzfreiheit.com/wiki/Authoring_Novels_with_LibreOffice#Managing_Multiple_Writing_Projects
I also back up daily, copying each file that is changed to a dated directory.
Thanks for this, Fritz! I love seeing how other writers organize their work.