How do I Organise my Writing?
Organising your writing is a habit you should get into from day one of writing any project. It’s like good housekeeping – it needs to be done often.
Are you one of the many writers that do not organise their writing?
Do you file things and lose them, nearly instantly?
Read my advice on how to organise your writing. It’s a simple system that I have used for many decades… and it works!
Never lose your work again!
How to Prepare to Organise Your Writings
So much frustration comes from trawling through your computer trying to find your writing. It’s like you write it, and the minute you file it, it goes into the ether.
How many times have you found a piece of writing, years later, and said to yourself: ‘Did I write that?’
I have come up with a system that provides instant access to filling your writings.
It is applicable to memoir, novel and autofiction writing.
How the System Works
- it is paper based and works in parallel with your computer
- it is for the development of your story, not your actual written story
You are probably now thinking this is an ancient way – paper!
It is, but it works. And it’s simple.
And it works better than any computer system in terms of instantly being able to access what you have written, whereby you can view the development of your entire book – instantly.
Not only that, you will ‘see’ your story grow, and a computer will never give you that.
As the ring binger gets thicker – so has the development of your story.
So don’t judge yet… bear with me…. bear with me.
Tracking your story with this simple system is instant.
The System – What You Will Need
- Ring Binder
- Plastic Pocket Holders (See through A4 or Letter Size)
- File Separators
How to Organise Your Writings
1. Create a Folder on your Computer, label it with the Title of your story, or the Working Title of your story.
2. Within this Computer Folder, create sub-folders, labelled:
- Characters
- Setting
- Theme
- Truth
- Structure
- Research
- Notes
3. In your Ring Binder, title the File Separators as follows:
- Character
- Setting
- Theme
- Truth
- Structure
- Research
- Notes
What To Do
When you have completed developing an element from each part of your story, ie, a Character, or a Setting etc, in your computer – do three things:
a) Print your work.
b) File the digital file in your computer under the appropriate sub-folder as outlined in 2 above.
c) Put the printed page in a plastic pocket, and file it in your Ring Binder under the appropriate section for each piece of written work/exercise etc: eg: Character development / Setting etc.
Tips
- The use of plastic separators allows you to flick through your notes really quickly.
- As you progress through the development of your story you will be able to see your ring binder getting thicker! This means you are getting deeper and deeper into your story.
- When you have completed the development phase of your story, and have outlined a Beginning, Middle and End to your story, and are ready to write it, you will be able to flick through all the details of each character/setting etc, to give you instant recall as your write your story in your computer.
Do the above for each story you write – so you will have a Ring Binder and a Computer file for each story.
Each time you work on a particular story, just pick up your Ring Binder and familiarise yourself with where you are at in the story – it’s instant!
How easy is that?
It works! Try it.
Go Write!
Want a helping hand and guide to put this into practise?
The Memoir Writing Workbook (240 pages) is based on right-brain/left-brain visual writing techniques. It has 36 multi-part focused exercises and 45 writing tips to help trigger memory and learn story creation. Each chapter with examples, show how to develop and write memoir, using the unique Memoir Map.
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