Hey everyone! I’m back again with another stand alone post. Only one more to go before we start in on the new series! I am so excited! This week’s post is a little bit more advice than last weeks post but it’s still got a lot of opinion in it as well. It also will give you a little bit of insight into my daily writing life. So, without further ado…
Keeping The Writer Life Organized
Being a writer is so much fun like I mentioned last week, however, being a writer is also very difficult. Along with having to write, edit, and be creative writers also need to stick to deadlines, keep storylines consistent, keep hundreds of made-up details straight, and still manage a normal day to day life. With all of the things a writer has to do just getting longer the older you get, it’s no wonder that writers are constantly stereotyped as forgetful and busy people. One of the most important and most difficult things for writers is keeping themselves organized.
This post is meant to be advice on how to best keep yourself organized as well as giving insight into my own writing organization. There are many different things writers can do to be organized. Some of these things include having trackers, writing to-do lists, and making notes. Others are more creative like making a writer’s bible, using hundreds of sticky notes, and online organization sites. Whatever it is that you do to be organized might not work exactly for the next person or it might not work for you in the future. Keep in mind that the things I’m going to share today are the things that I do to be organized and that while they work for me know they might not work for me in the future or for you now.
Writers Bible
Writer’s bibles are really useful for any writer who wants or needs to keep track of any sort of specific storyline or novel. I have only made one writer’s bible before and I’m actually not sure where it is currently located. I’m currently working on creating a new writers bible for a series I have been writing for 6 years. When you have been writing a story that long you really begin to lose track of simple details like certain characters or interesting facts. I would take a picture of my writer’s bible but because it is still a work in progress, I’ll just share some pictures of pieces that will be put in the journal.
I know that a lot of writers use writer’s bibles to keep themselves organized when they are writing more than one book in a specific series but some writers use it for a single book or for multiple series that are going to be connected into a larger universe of characters. My younger brother has a writer’s bible of the later kind but his is written on a series of memos on his phone. Writer’s bibles come in all sorts of shapes and forms and can also be used for inspiration which is why I wrote a post on them in my Inspiration series here.
Regardless of how you use them writer’s bibles can be useful for any writer for keeping yourself organized in any situation.
Bullet Journal Trackers
I have always kept a bullet journal for organizing myself as a writer. I have had bullet journals pretty much every year going back about 5 or 6 years. I think what helps to make a bullet journal helpful for keeping me organized as a writer is that I can have pages every month or every week or even every day that are dedicated to whatever I need as a writer. I have had all sorts of different trackers and spreads in my bullet journal for writing and have seen even more of them that I have never used online used by other writers. If you really want to look for examples of pages, feel free to search anywhere on the internet. You can even find printable journal spreads that can be pasted into a journal for bookkeeping.
One of my favorite spreads that I have used repeatedly over the years has been my word tracker. In recent months the word tracker hasn’t been as useful as before seeing as how I have not been writing by tracking word count but rather by days spent writing. However, I have loved using word count trackers in the past to help keep me organized and on target. I have also made a Nanowrimo tracker before to help me know how much I had to write each day to reach my goal. Recently because I’ve mostly been writing whenever I’m not working, at school, or when I need to write a blog post I simply have a writing goals page with checkable to do lists instead of a tracker of some sort.
Bullet journals are flexible enough and easy to make pages for and so tracking and organizing myself using a bullet journal is one of the easiest and most efficient ways I have found to track my writing.
Sticky Notes
I absolutely love using sticky notes to stay organized and I even use them to leave little notes to myself in places to find later. Once I was having a difficult time writing a specific scene so before I put my notebook away for the day I wrote a cute sticky note that said “You can do this! This scene is not hard!” and stuck it in my manuscript. When I came back a couple days later to confront the scene I found the note and it helped me to get back on track.
I also use sticky notes to keep me focused. When I am writing I often times will catch my brain working on other parts of the story in my head, or coming up with more unique and interesting ideas that I could use. It also solves plot holes problems while I’m writing and other things that, when not working on a specific scene, would be extremely helpful. Because I am trying to write something else these moments can actually be super distracting. So I use this time to write those thoughts on a sticky note and stick it to the page of my notebook I’m writing or to the wall nearest me. These help me to stay focused and give me a place to organize my thoughts to use later on in a story.
Sticky notes are an easy and efficient way to organize yourself and often times sticky notes are not very expensive (although it can become expensive when you use them very often).
Folder of Index Cards
Sometimes thoughts and ideas come to you while out and about or doing the oddest things. Generally these can be written down in a phone or on a small notepad carried around with you. I like to write them down on index cards. I always carry a few with me just in case. The problem with writing on index cards is that index cards can easily be dropped, lost, or ripped up. Using index cards is convenient for me when walking around but not so convenient in the long run.
To keep all of my index card notes organized I have something called the folder of postcards. I don’t know if they still sell them anymore (I haven’t looked recently) but I have several of those small little photo carriers sold at the dollar store for children. They are the right size for an index card. I made little covers for each different folder, and each is an idea folder of index cards for specific books or series. Some of these index cards will never be used and there is a section for them in the booklet but some are really clever and helpful and those are stored in a separate section, so I know where they are.
A folder of index cards might not be helpful for everyone, but it certainly is a helpful way for me to organize. This is just one example of how you can take your own little writing quirks and find really interesting and creative ways to organize them, so you don’t loose track.
Binders and Filing Cabinet
I find that binders and filing cabinets are the best way to keep my handwritten material organized for long periods of time for easy access in the future. If you are more of a digital writer than the same concepts apply to folders and files on your computer. I generally keep certain parts of a filing cabinet specifically for writing ideas and materials. Each of those parts of the filing cabinet are organized by type. Some parts are full on incomplete books, some are sections specifically for maps I have never completed, and others are for plot outlines. When a book gets detailed enough to have its own section that shows I’m REALLY committed to that book.
But each of these sections also has binders to organize it further and those binders have tabs and folders inside of that. For example, in my plot outline section of my filing cabinet there are 3 binders. One is for fantasy plot ideas, one is for science fiction plot ideas, and the third is for other (since I write more of the first two and a minimum amount of the third). Inside each plot idea binder there are tabs separating by book. Basically I break each section down until I would be able to locate a certain piece of material quickly.
This also applies to me writing documents on my computer. They are organized in a similar way. I have a documents folder and in that document folder I have writing and in that writing folder I have more specific folders that open to even more specific folders. My google drive is organized similarly with a writing folder which is organized more and more specifically. Both of these ways make it really simple for me to locate anything that I need at any needed time. It also helps me to realize rather quickly if I’m missing something or lost a paper because its not where it should be.
These are really helpful and interesting ways to keep yourself organized as a writer. You can use all, some, or none of these and choose to organize yourself different ways. Every writer organizes themselves differently but no matter how you do it, it’s important. Keeping yourself organized can not only make it easier to write but can also make it more fun and interesting as well.
That’s all for today’s post. Let me know if you have different and interesting ways to keep yourself organized. Send me a message through social media, the member forum on the webpage, or through the comment section on the blog post. Next week will be the last stand alone post before the new series starts. I’m so excited for this new series and I hope you enjoy it just as much as I do. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, become a blog page member, share, and follow me on social media at the links at the bottom of the page. And remember,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!
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