Keeping Notes

Everything is in my head. Which is scary.

With my next novel, I think I'm going to have to keep extensive notes.

I take notes, but they can't be called 'extensive' compared to yours!

I mainly makes notes of things I know I'm going to need to refer to later (names, jobs, relations, etc.) and of things I want to make sure I don't forget (great dialogue lines or plot events/ turns that are too good to lose.)

I keep a notebook nearby at all times to jot things down until later. Ironically, most of the time, I don't end up going back to what I've written. Most of the time, merely the act of writing is enough to help cement it into my brain. Heh.

If I get an idea that I need to remember, I just save a note in the draft folder on my phone. Everything else (the important stuff) is in my head.

I write little notes to myself as I'm writing, like when something comes to me about a character or situation but it isn't the right time to reveal whatever it is in the story. I'll even present questions for my characters in my notes.

For example, here are a few notes I made while writing my latest book which is currently with my agent (and I'm making some revisions):

Don't forget to add abandonment issues as far as how Chalice feels about her dad. Where was he while her mother lay bleeding to death from a gunshot wound? She thinks she hates him, but she's really pining for him. If he's still alive, he's the only family she has left.

Geraldine's hand; she made Chalice drop it on purpose. Geraldine knows where all her body parts are. She just doesn't want the Vyantara to have them. She doesn't want to be made whole so that she can be turned into their slave, bonded to a gargoyle like Chalice.

How did Geraldine's head come into the Vyantara's possession?

Where are the other Hatchet knights?

There's lots, lots more. I know it all sounds pretty weird, but it's urban fantasy about a half-angel knight bonded to an evil gargoyle. You'd have to read the story to understand my notes.

I keep research notes definitely. But when it comes to story and structure, I've tried a few times to write them out but it seemed so pointless (for me personally). To me my story has a logical progression, so it is difficult for me to forget about something because without that something the story wouldn't work. Also (like I am sure every one of us here) I have the story constantly running through my head, adding things, fixing things as I go grocery shopping and the like. Though occasionally if a really good line comes to me, I will write that down.

my notes are very disorganized. i have a document with list of characters and short character profiles, a list of chapters (with a few words describing what happens/where they are), and then random notes to myself, names of folk tales, and descriptions of what's about to happen in case i forget the next time i sit down to write. everything else is on post-it notes on the wall behind my computer.

It really depends on the book. Peterson Estate is a series so it has a lot of characters in it which can be very confusing at times for me so I keep notes for that story--names, chapter they are introduced, and who they are. For my other books, I don't do that.

I also did some major research for Peterson Estate since I'd never been to Pensylvania which are in my notes as well.

Everything else is in my head too lol.

Amber

I can't even write an outline for my novel!

I think the notes is a good idea though, I can see how it would help.

I write lots of notes. I write an over 60 page outline by scene. All the characters (including the minor ones) have a 6-page interview with questions regarding eye-colour, honestly, background, etc. I then write notes in my novel in red, stuff like 'think of a wittier comeback' and 'perhaps remove this line'. I also have loads of notes on the characters, stuff like 'The boss refers to Steph as Stephanie' and 'Don't forget to mention Darren's nickname'. I also write tons of lines that are really witty and when the books done, I try to include most of them. I write a lot of notes, I hate thinking of something and forgetting it.

Notes and outlines and character descriptions. Welcome and enjoy.

I do extensive predraft notes (192 pgs. single spaced for the current WIP). Then I dash through the first draft headlong. Then I write extensive revision notes (50ish pgs on this WIP).

During actual draft writing, I tend to write few notes. I'm powering through to keep ahead of the Inner Editor.

I scribble down notes on scraps of paper, usually having to do with plot developments I may use in later chapters. I'd really like to do this in a more organized way, maybe with index cards and a box to put them in.

Now into the second draft, I am keeping some notes, but not on the story itself, in part because if it gets picked up, it'll be a series. I need to make sure what I said about character A is consistent in the next book. What I keep notes on:

In OneNote:

Characters: I paste in the description I used for the character in the story, so I know what details I did provide. Then I add any other information about him that crops up--this is especially useful since one of the characters is a celebrity of sorts, and the press and tabloids are busy repeating information whether it's true or not!

Places: Since mine does have a made up country, I'm keeping track of whatever details I happen to have about the provinces mentioned in the story (there's twelve altogether, but since only two get mentioned in the story, those are the ones I have info on).

OneNotes pretty handy for these; I can just create a tab called Characters, and then a page within the tab for each one.

In Word:

References: MS Word 2007's citation feature is really handy for this. I just made up a list of the books and magazines I used for research and where I got it.

Right now, I'm doing a "after revision" outline--an outline of the first draft to try to figure out where to fit an important subplot in.

I tried keeping notes at one point, but it turned out it's easier to do it in my head. I had to heavily modify my book's chapter outline while writing the first draft, and then ignore it in subsequent revisions. Character outlines aren't that useful to me, either; the major characters I already know the important things about, and the minor ones change too rapidly between rewritings.

What I do do is deepen the characters, in my head. My novel's about the 2020 Presidential election, so I keep mental tabs on speeches by the major candidates, their life histories, their attitudes, etc.; the way international affairs have changed since 2008 by region; and the role the protagonists, who aren't politicians, play in each step. But even these change too rapidly for it to be worth it making a written file.

My world-building involves creating country and character histories. I make a couple of charts to keep track of those. Beyond that, I keep brief notes for continuity's sake, like the name of a childhood pet or a favourite food. I have yet to come across anything else I need to keep track of but if I do, I'll probably make notes about that as well.

I didn't keep that thorough notes when I was at university!

I make notes when I'm researching but as soon as I've written that part of the story, I don't go back to them. Sometimes I make notes on continuity and timelines to keep me straight and I keep notes (fairly brief ones) on character bios.

I do what Karen does too, jot down random notes everywhere. Manys the time I'll unearth post-it notes or receipts from my bag saying things like "where's the knife?" or "don't forget the dead guy". Sometimes they make sense and sometimes I have no idea what they mean! LOL.

Clare

I do all of my writing on my PC, so keep all of the notes in a separate folder for each one of my novels.
I do notes in Wordpad, possibly on sub-plots, conversations and thoughts of my characters and stick them into the folder. I always know the character and their traits so never have to write notes about them. My beta-reader asked where I got all of my characters from? I shrugged and said out of my head, which is where they do come from, but they do change in the story sometimes though.
I collect information from the internet sometimes and keep that the folders as web pages; information on Basque separatists, the robbery at Le Louvre and what I can find on some particular court cases.

I also buy books that might be valuable research for what I am writing about at the time, for instance, I have books on criminal psychology.
I also have an ex-boyfriend, who used to be a criminal, that I can ask things, like how long people would get in prison for helping criminals etc. He comes in very handy sometimes


Elodie

I never used to, until I bogged down in my gargantuan serials and decided to take a break to go back and take notes on it all. (It took over a year. Ugh.)

When stories get as long as mine do it's easy to lose track. I'll have, say, a character leave the group in Part 14 but then they're present in Part 16 when they should still be gone. Or one character will have knowledge of something they were never told about in the story. So frustrating! I hope the notes will minimize such plot errors. *cross fingers*

My notes run along the lines of, give the chapter part and title, list the characters in that chapter, give a summary of all that happens, then take all the important detailed notes on the stuff I might need to keep in mind. It's kind of unwieldy, so I don't know yet how useful this may be, but that's how I did it. I do see that it's been helpful so far, though, to know which characters are in which chapters! (I work with lots of characters in large groups, traveling and splitting up and such and such.)

Regarding keeping track of sources I use or cite in my work (Youtube videos??)...I don't do that as I don't cite things, since it's fiction. :/ I do use sources, but in a more organic way...I don't go out and, say, do research because I'm writing something on some subject. I just incorporate what I've learned from my for-fun reading into my story. This is easy, since what I write about is what I'm interested in reading about, and I have a lot of books on the subject. There are times, however, when I wish I'd kept track of where I got a particular detail because I want to make sure how correct it might be, since some sources disagree. For that reason I plan to eventually go read all those books again and take some general notes!

I sometimes journal about my thoughts on my writing, what I plan to do, how it's changed, but that's just because I feel like it, not to keep track of anything. I think about my writing so much that I don't need to keep track of my feelings about the process (though to look back on what I thought in the past is interesting).

Use Her Name said:

The hardest thing, I feel is having 400 pages and not knowing what is in them, or how to work on them if I could. It sounds silly, but it is very easy to lose control.

Click to expand...

I'm not doing any of this to get published or anything, but I very much understand this particular quote. I know all about losing control of a story.

ETA: Since someone else mentioned "predraft notes," I thought I should mention that my notes are on what's already been written. I don't tend to take notes ahead of time; it's like outlining to me.

I don't think I could have notes as extensive as that, but I do tend to write things down. There's no particular order to what I keep notes on, it's sorta just what I feel like writing down to remember, or what I feel I should/need to organize. Most of my notes tend to be on my characters. I've made character webs, character charts, character bios and interviews, and some character profiles. I don't really like flat profiles, because they just don't seem like the real characters. I prefer writing out more like an interview with them and let them talk for themselves. That way I have a record of their voice too, and if I want to use them as viewpoint characters they're easier to get into. I use bios for more characters too, and profiles to fill in the details that are worth remembering but don't fit in anywhere else.

I keep documents of scenes I want to include or take away, ones I need to write, ideas for speech, subplots, notes on research that might prove interesting, quotes of things that sparked my imagination, worldbuilding, just a hodgepodge of things. I write down phrases that people say that seem to define them (like how my dad says "FANtastic" when you asked him how things were going, provided he wasn't stressed out) or lines of dialogue that come to mind but don't really fit anywhere. Most notes I keep are things I need to fix, change, or remember about something I'm working on, or ideas for future projects. Any research I find online I bookmark under one of my favorites folders, even if it doesn't seem immidiatly useful so I can find it again, or if there was only one thing that looked useful from a site I'd pull it into a document and quote it. Anything that wasn't online I might write down or just make note of to try to get a copy of for myself.

I don't keep a log of why I changed everything, but I never like to delete or change anything too drastically unless I have a record of what it was previously, so I end up with lots and lots of copies of different scenes, and I have a document of edited out lines and paragraphs that were long enough or good enough to be worth keeping note of. I probably wouldn't be able to flat pull something from one project to another, but even if something I wrote for one novel doesn't fit there, it might fit somewhere else or give me another idea later, so I save them.

I don't really like going by a super strict outline, though I usually do have a vague plan somewhere. I don't write down much more than a sentance on a scene I want to remember to have because if I synopsize everything, it doesn't feel as necessary to go out and actually write it in story form. I always have to know I'm aiming for one scene or another, or have an idea of how I want the thing to end, so I might write down some things I need to include to get there, but that's the extent of most of my outlining. I keep most things in my head. When it comes down to the climax and the end, I'll plan more scenes to make sure it all makes sense and doesn't get too long. It also makes a nice list to be able to cross things off of when I finish them. It makes me feel accomplished.

I don't remember which forum member it was that told me about OneNote but I've been using it to keep track of details, research sources, character traits and chapter outlines.
I won't go into a sales pitch on the product, but it has lots of features that help you take care of the details and keep your notes organized and in one place.

I have greater-than-three notebooks, a scattered stack of notecards, and enough post-it notes to build a bridge to Alpha Centauri. Whenever I get an idea, I grab a pen and write it down; or, if the pen's too far away, I convince myself it wasn't a good idea.

I used to think that the mere act of writing down my ideas would cement them into permanency. I know I've lost enough "psh, no way I'll forget that" ideas to create the most epical epic ever epicized.

Anyway, I'm moving IRL, and in doing so I decided I really don't want to keep all these millions of post-its and scraps of paper and whatnot. I mean, seriously, some of them are grocery lists, and if I haven't paid that bill by now then it's probably a year too late... my desk might not be particularly organized.

So I started transcribing all my notes. And yeah, that "writing it down cements it" idea? Less-than-true for me. I'm finding lots of ideas that might as well have gone the way of the ones I didn't write down. I cringe at a lot of it, at how bad my writing was in college, etc... but I find useful turns of phrase too, or characterisms I haven't used since. It's a lot of crap, but there are some gems in it.

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to use for taking notes. One giant word or notepad file would just suffer the same fate of never being read, and I didn't know about OneNote (looking at it, it might not be what I need), so I did some searching and discovered WikidPad. I'm not a schill, but it was free and easy-- it essentially converts your notes into a personal wiki, creating new entries if you [bracket] a word or CamelCase it, and it arranges everything into a convenient tree. I'll bracket some key words in each note I write up-- names, places, ideas-- and they all link to the same page. So, when I'm done with writing up these countless notes, I can easily click on the page for a certain character and see which pages link to it-- which scenes I wrote, which ideas, who interacts with him, etc.

Dunno if it'll help you, but it works for how my brain organizes things.

While your method is probably more intricate than most writers would use, I think I could probably take a lesson from you. I've found an old box of half-finished novels from a few years back, and though I remember the characters and general plotlines, there are so many details and plans for the unfinished second halves of these novels that I know once existed in my mind but have been lost.

With one of the half-novels, I actually wrote an outline (which is surprising) and it revealed a lot of things I'd thought deeply about at the time but now seem completely foreign to me - family histories, future plotlines, name origins, motivations, and which character is represented by earth, sky, air, or fire (heh... I think I spent too, too much time planning that one and not enough time actually writing it!).

I don't know if it's necessary to write that many notes, but if it helps you think through a story and doesn't distract you from actually WRITING, then there's no harm in doing it. (Though if you find yourself spending more time on note-taking than on actual writing, you might want to reconsider). You might choose never to touch the notes again, but they also might prove useful in your revisions. Plus, if you're feeling stuck, it's probably a good way to generate ideas by just looking over your notes, seeing if there is something that hasn't yet made its way into the story, etc.

The notes I tend to keep are just general ones. Like an idea here, character development point here, a line I like that will fit one of my WIPs there. It's slightly organized, or so I like to think. I just keep it in a small little notepad and divide each idea or whatever with a line. I'll be sitting down reading a book, and all of a sudden the words "Judie's favourite colour is a soft yellow." will pop into my head and I'll have to write it down. So I do take notes, but nowhere near "extensive".