organization Archives

Tips to Organize 2019

January 4, 2019December 30, 2018Tools for Writers, Uncategorized

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Happy New Year! Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays.

One thing I like to do at the beginning of the year is planning. To me, setting up my year on my calendar isn’t really about goals–it’s just a way to help me visualize when I need to reach out to my production team for editing and design help (and to post upcoming releases on my website for readers to see my timeline). A reader once suggested that I have a ‘Coming Soon‘ page on my site to help her keep my releases straight, and I’ve found that works well.

Ways to stay organized:

Production calendar. I use my Google calendar and then I also put it on my wall calendar. First off, I know how long it takes me to write and revise a book from start to finish: three months. With that in mind, I know an approximate date to ask my editor for help with the book and to send ARCs to my ARC team. While my editor makes edits, I work on the outline for the next book in that same series. Then I contact my cover designer and ask her to make a cover for that book (a book that won’t come out for another seven months or so). I also start setting up my book for preorder online at Amazon, Draft2Digital (for Nook, Apple, Kobo, etc.), StreetLib, Ingram, and PublishDrive. I announce the preorder on social media and on my website. This process helps keep me on track and prevents any issues from arising that might result in the delay of a book.Continue reading

Keeping Organized as a Writer

July 10, 2017June 22, 2017Tools for Writers, Uncategorized

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Being a writer can involve a lot of clutter.

And I don’t even print things out. I’ve trained myself by this time to work as well on the computer as I used to on paper (that way I don’t have the time-consuming process of transferring notes or manuscript text to the computer later). But there’s a lot of computer clutter.

I’ve found if I can keep my files organized, it helps me to write a lot faster. That’s because I can quickly access the information I need and keep writing my story without getting distracted by something else on my computer (hello, internet).

Here’s my (current) method, using Word. I’ve gone through a bunch of different iterations and I’d be interested in hearing how you’ve set your own files up.Continue reading

Organization: Top Time Savers

February 24, 2017February 23, 2017Motivation and the Writing Life, Tools for Writers, Uncategorized

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

This is the last post of the time saving series. You can find the first post here (on social media), post two here (on saving time writing), and the third post here (on book production). Today, I’m focusing on general organization. I’ve found if I’m better organized, I can free up more time for writing.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got tons of information to organize and work through. It could be writing craft posts. It could be research for your book. It could be ideas and images for blog posts.How do you store this information so that you can easily access it?

I use a couple of different tools for organizing information: one is Evernote and the other is OneNote. Both are free (Evernote has a paid version if you’re an especially heavy user). This post will include both the writing-related and personal uses of the apps because, in my house at least, if I’m not organized with both home and writing it impacts my writing time.