Everybody has a method for organizing a book. It’s important to stick with whatever works for you.
For me, the most important thing about organizing a book is that it’s got to be easy. It can’t be time-consuming. Because it would be incredibly tempting to sink your writing time into making the perfect, tabbed notebook with color-coded sections. Believe me, I’d be totally pulled into that kind of time suck.
I haven’t talked about my own method for organizing a book (and it’s pretty basic) for a while, so I thought I’d share it here. It does help me to work through a draft pretty quickly…and the edits, too.
I just finished writing a first draft. So, to help me keep all my documents straight, I have a folder in Word with the working title of the manuscript. Inside that folder, I have a character sheet with character names (full names) and short descriptions. I fill this out as I go so that I don’t have to look back in my document to try to remember character details (I have a lousy memory…)
Sometimes I’m writing on the go, so there will be scraps of paper in places like my car, my purse, etc. Or I’ll wake up with an idea and scrawl an unintelligible note on some paper on my bedside table.
What I’ve learned I have to do, though, is to gather those papers together at the end of the day. If one of the ideas is for later in the story, then I type it into an ideas document in the WiP’s folder on Word. If it’s something related to my current spot in the story, then I add it in.
Keeping tabs on these scraps is important—frequently the ideas that suddenly hit me are better than the ones that I sit down and decide to have. A few times I’ve finished a book, emailed the manuscript to my editor, and found a scrap of paper later that had a really cool twist on it. Oh well!
I’ve seen other writers use different methods. Some swear by Post-Its on a bulletin board/story board. Some write everything in a spiral notebook, then they type it all onto the computer later. Another way to organize a book is to use an online program designed specifically for writers. My friend, Mike Fleming’s, Hiveword, for example. It sure makes it easier to find all the different components of your book. And helps avoid the sloppiness of Post-Its.
On to editing.
One thing that really helps me speed through a draft is the fact that I don’t edit as I go…although I know plenty of writers who do, and it works well for them.
I, on the other hand, become a disaster when I edit as I go. It messes up my creative flow by making me use a different part of my brain. When my editor hat is on, I feel like my manuscript is a broken mess. It might be, but it’s all fixable. This is something that I don’t need to worry over while I’m drafting.
I do one time-saving thing that helps me organize my to-do list for editing the next draft.
I notice problems as I go. I’ll either jot down a note on a separate document to remind myself to address it later, or make a comment to myself in Track Changes on Word.
If I stop to fix the problem, it just pulls me right out of the story.
I’ll also have a document with extra bits of dialogue and ideas to be worked in later…or discarded.
And I have my list of things to edit after the first draft is done. For mine now, the list is stuff that only I would understand:
Add Corrine’s reward
Short updates from Myrtle in the newspaper
Elaine’s photography
Albums
Freeze the ham.
So…you get the idea. I’m not writing a huge explanation when I jot these notes down. These are just brief reminders to help me remember things I need to add or adjust so that there won’t be continuity errors or plot holes.
That’s really it. Simple stuff, but it helps me move quickly through drafting a manuscript and editing it. How do you organize your writing and editing?
Image: Patricia Fortes, Morgue Files
Elizabeth – I really like your idea of making notes to yourself for later edits. It’s an effective way to remember what needs to be done without getting bogged down. I need to try to do that. As for me? I’m an outliner. So first I outline the story, then as I get brilliant? ideas I go back and add them to the outline. Then when I’m editing I work them into the story. The outline also helps me remember character names (I’m embarrassing about keeping wrong character names in a manuscript for instance).
Thank you so much, Elizabeth, for these organizing tips. I’m working on my very first novel and I love the idea of creating a folder that includes things like character sheets because as I move forward, I’m forgetting who I named who and things about them.
karen
I like scene cards, but I really have to thank you for the link to Hiveword. That’s an amazing site! It’s like my scene cards, but without writing things twice. I can just go straight to the computer. loving it!
I do this too as I write. Instead of editing, unless it’s a major rewrite of a chapter that will affect future chapters, I’ll just jot down what I want to change in the second draft. That seems to work well. :)
Oh how timely! Please forgive the length of this.
My method for organizing as I write is possibly the simplest- laziest?- I’ve ever seen. For each chapter, at the the bottom of my Word doc I will write within brackets “[]” what I want to happen in that chapter. Something like “[heroine goes to cafe; best friend introduces her to hero; they talk about food; etc]” As I go I’ll check back and forth to make sure I got each point- and sometimes I change my mind, but that’s okay. I then delete or cross out as I go to note that I got it.
After sending my manuscript to several beta readers, I finally had enough notes with a general direction that I wanted to start making serious edits. The easiest way for me to “see” everything was to create a story board. I went to Staples and bought a bunch of different colored Post Its as well as a trifold that people use in presentations. I outlined my plot in the middle and on the right had “Issues/Questions” and on the left had “Solutions”. My intention was to outline the entire plot and then come up with Solutions, but I was only a third of the way through before I realized what I had to do. I wrote everything on sticky notes, then transferred my notes to- ahem- an email draft.
I used that draft as my editing log for a week or two, taking on what stood out the most to me as I could/as I was moved. When it became apparent that I was really far along but that I needed to prioritize, I moved my notes into an Excel sheet. The columns were the edits (Addition, Removal or Edit), the status and the priority. (Obviously, a more organized person would go straight to this and skip the email draft step!)
Works for me because I need a combination of visual and easy to access/track.
Great advice, Elizabeth! (Freeze the Ham is going to be the name of my next book!)
Like Deb, I love brackets for notes (and corrections and questions). They’re easy to search for, and they display equally well in any text program.
I’m thinking this could be a fun meme — each of us should now think about our process, and write up a blog post about it. (I think I’ll do this for my Writer Wednesday post this week.)
One of the techniques I find helpful is to make not only a list of character names–as you do–but also businesses in the town, their locations, and streets. I too have a bad memory. When I finish a writing day I update the list. This saves me time because I don’t have to constantly be going back to look for something I’ve written earlier.
You and I seem to have really similar processes (though I think you still write much more cleanly than I do) but I start with ideas on paper and diagrams that help me keep relationships and motives straight. I don’t edit as I go, but I often go back and insert notes because I will have a NEW direction that I love, so I go earlier and put (drop hints suggesting XYZ, or ‘mention ABCharacter so they aren’t out of the blue later). I am not as diligent about my character bible, but I try–I do it in an excel file, though a word table might be more appropriate.
Hi Elizabeth,
This was very helpful. Thanks for sharing your tricks of the trade with us.
I wanted you to know that I will be having a giveaway as soon as I get it organized, and the prizes will be Quilt or Innocence and The Azalea Assault. I bought a copy of each to keep and extra copies to give to others.
I enjoyed catching up on your blog today … so much great information!
Kathy M.
Margot–Definitely brilliant! And I’m like you with those names. I realized a couple of days ago that I’d changed Irene to Annette…
Laura–It’s not so scary to look at, either, when it’s time to edit.
Deb–You’ve got a great method!
I do something very similar to your bracketing method…I put a one line statement about what I want to accomplish in Italics for the next day. That way, I never have to wonder where I left off or what to write next. Not an outline…but close.
You know…I really like emailing drafts. It’s a form of back-up, for one thing…even if your computer ends up at the bottom of a lake, you can still access emails. And your story board sounds like a fantastic way to organize your plot!
That Excel sheet sounds amazing! I’m a little less visual, but I know so many people who are (most of my family, actually.) Great tool to organize your book.
Susan–Like a style sheet, then? I use those, too…very helpful! And when you talk with book clubs, etc., about past books you’ve written, it helps to refresh your memory, too.
Karen–Hope it helps! I’m exactly the same way…I have a really hard time keeping up with names, in particular.
Meg–It’s a great site…hope you’ll enjoy it! And no cards to lose. :)
Hart–I usually have a *pretty* clean first draft (although the one I just finished is a real mess! Not sure how that happened.) Diagrams would be a real help for writers who are visual learners, for sure!~
Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy –Hope the ideas help!
Thanks so much for doing the giveaway and for reading our books! I appreciate that. :)
Alan–Ha! Sounds like a winner! Yep, I was just writing away, “Myrtle took the ham out of the freezer” and thought…hey, that ham wasn’t *in* the freezer!
The Daring Novelist–I’ve never used brackets, but I’ve used *** before. Great way to just get past a problem area and move on.
Sounds like a good meme to me! :)
I do something similar. I love word for being able to add highlighted notes right in the section I’m working on. I even color code the highlights. Red is for grammar stuff, blue for pacing or character corrections, and yellow for plot notes.
It keeps me on track to finish the novel before I get caught up in editing.
Autmn–Word’s highlighter function is very useful. I like the way you’re approaching it.
Yes, finishing the novel before editing it works best for me. Otherwise, I end up worrying about how *good* the book is. I don’t need to worry about that until after the first draft.
One of the best tips you mention is making sure to gather all those slips of paper that you’ve jotted all those ideas/notes down on at the end of the day. So important! Not only is it a shame to have those lovely ideas lost forever, but I too have finished a book only to find some leftover scraps with ideas that I would have liked to include. As you say, “Oh, well.” Great post!
I like your method. I’ve recently added a file of Things To Add when I’m drafting and doing my read through. It really does help! :)
Dina–It’s one of those things that seems like a chore at the end of the day (which is when I gather mine), but is so worth it.
I’m a post-it note kind of girl–and I try to remember to stick them inside my notebook each day.
Thanks for the great tips–they seem easy enough to use! Especially the file about character traits. I can definitely see that as being convenient!
I write just like you do – including the notes file and scraps of paper!
I do some editing while I’m writing, but only if the section I’m working on just isn’t coming together or I’m not inspired to write at all. When that happens, I pick a totally different section of the book to edit. Sometimes this sparks creativity, but even when it doesn’t at least I feel like I accomplished something.