Organization is important, at least for me, for completing any project. I keep a notepad at arms reach, lists are always growing, and when I was working, I consumed post-it notes at a prodigious rate. And that doesn’t even count the pages I’m constantly emailing to myself.
For a book that took over 13 years to complete, I had to develop some new ideas. I make no claim that they amount to best practices, but they seemed to help me.
I saved chapters, in multiple versions, as I wrote. Initially I’d email copies to have them stored beyond my computer. Eventually I saved them in google drive and worked on them in goggle docs. Even then I’d save PDF copies to my computer and email them to a separate email account. The point is, I always had backups in multiple places. I don’t have a horror story about lost work to prove how important that is, but I still think that’s the only way to go. Next time I think I’ll work in a single long document so that I can search the entire doc easily.
Characters and Things - This became a place to keep track of characters and important things, when they were introduced, and brief descriptions. Next time I’ll used this more, and I’ll definitely be more descriptive regarding characters, settings, etc.
Calendar of Story - With a story that takes place in 6 months, you might think I wouldn’t need this. I quickly found out I did, and referred to it often.
Events by Chapter - This helped me go back to the right chapter when I needed to. It might not be needed for that purpose if I worked in a single document. It is still worthwhile in my mind for documenting the introduction of key ideas and major events.
Foreshadowing - If you give a hint that something is coming, you ought to follow up on that, right? Well, it’s easier with documentation like this. Again, I’ll use this tool better next time.
Forgive me for thinking that I can help another aspiring author. Even to me it seems a little over the top. Still, I have to guess that I know at least a little bit more than someone who’s never gone through the process. So why not try to help? As Ram Dass said, “We are all just walking each other home.”
As always, thanks for reading! I’ll be back next week with a quick look at the reviews I’ve received to date. THANKS to those who’ve made that extra effort!
PS If you’ve read the book but not left a review, it’s never too late!
PPS If it’s underlined above, you can click through to the document or page in question.