How do you Organize your WIP's? (research, fleshing out details)

Tnonk · Dec 4, 2008

How do organize your WIP's? Or do you organize them at all?
For me, I have found it easier to get three ring binders with those clear plastic sheet protectors to help keep thing organized for me.
I do all of my writing with pencil / pen & paper so it tends to want to get away from me if I don't have a way to keep things straight
I've started my current WIP on the M/I story line with a small 1" binder & started printing out my research materials & separating them in the binder by topics. (My historical/fantasy binder is a black 3" binder & quite full.)
For instance, my research material on the type of aircraft I wanted to use in the opening sequence took a bit of time trying to find a plane with the characteristics I wanted to write about (ie 1000 mile range, fixed landing gear,twin engine & able to carry at least 12 passengers - of which 5 live)
I couldn't very well crash a 737 (or so) for my purpose. Too big & recently done on Lost. So I settled on a Twin Otter.
I know - too many details, too soon. But I wanted it to be viable & realistic as I could make it.
So, I had 6 pages of aircraft drawings & info in one slot.
I did the same thing for my other research topics - Island maps, locations, flora,& fauna, the Nautilus, etc.
I've been putting together the materials over the past two weeks & have gotten to the point that I will now be able to flesh out the details a bit more on quite a bit.
I wrote the opening sequence of them actually getting to the beach today. It's nowhere even close to being done, but I now know exactly what I'll be doing & where I will be taking my intrepid group (or are they taking ME there?)
Because I'm following the basic setup Verne used, I'm landing them in the same spot - so I had to reread & know where that was (& change it a bit after 140 years.) I landed them on the islet, which now has a number of palm trees. I'm in the process of killing off two of them (due to the crash - not murder) to get the final number down to 5.
Am I strange to enjoy the research & organization nearly as much as the writing?
Sorry to have rambled on.

Adrian

Mumut · Dec 5, 2008

I really enjoy research and it pays off in a number of ways. Not only am I happy writin gabout every-day life in the mid-fourteenth century, I can tell incredible stories when I'm book-signing. Most people interested in historical novels are well entertained. So keep on researching. By the way, the original writing was at a time they wouldn't have known of a variety of almost invisible jelly fish. people didn't swim in the sea for recreation in those times, so didn't come across them like we do now. So you have more natural killers to use, if you want to.

Linda Adams · Dec 5, 2008

I have one file for each chapter. Everything--the chapter, the pertinent research--all goes into the appropriate chapter file.

The research comes in three forms:

* If it's from a Web site, I only print the selection, not the entire page so I don't end up wasting twenty pages to get one paragraph.

* If it's from a book or magazine, I write it on a 4x6 index card and drop that in the folder. I don't copy the pages from the book. Like the Web site, I often only need a section or a piece of information, so an index card works fine.

* For places, I'll drop the brochure for it in the folder.

For things that catch my interest--either for ideas or research--I just use my regular filing system, which has sections for Travel, Food, Ideas, etc.

For me, I have found it easier to get three ring binders with those clear plastic sheet protectors to help keep thing organized for me.

I've never been able to work with notebooks. They invariably become half-used and then turn into clutter.

Am I strange to enjoy the research & organization nearly as much as the writing?

What I like about organization is being able to find everything easily. I really like the folder system I have because if I run across something that I realize will fit into Chapter 24, but I haven't gotten there yet, I just drop it into the appropriate folder, and it's waiting for me when I get to the chapter.

KTC · Dec 5, 2008

I do not organize them at all. I write linear. Start with the first word and end with the last. I don't understand the concept of needing to organize. If I need to research something, I stop writing and quickly research it--find what I need--then go back to writing.

HeronW · Dec 5, 2008

As ideas come I tack them onto the end of the last chapter in progress of whatever I'm working on.

I did heavily research bullfighting for one story and emailed a vulcanologist about the types of molten stuff that comes out of volcanoes.

Even if everything I do is fantasy, it's grounded in realism so the horses throw shoes and go lame, there's only one olivine beach in the world, and I'm still lusting after getting some of 'Pele's Hair'. :}

Maryn · Dec 5, 2008

I don't hand-write anything if I can help it.

I have one folder per novel. It contains a single document which is the novel--I'll never separate my chapters again, now that I have enough RAM to move at a normal pace through a large document. For me, checking or changing something in another chapter is infinitely simpler when it's in the same document, and making global changes is easier, too.

That folder also contains a document of the facts I've established that it might be easy to stumble over (Washington St. is parallel to Main, Central Ave. crosses both. Ben's childhood dog was Jupiter, a collie. The fat guy who threatens Ben is afraid of bees.), a sub-folder of reference and research sorted by subject (ParamedicsEMTs, Goth Clothing, Art Awards for HS Students), a document for ideas I'll consider including in future drafts, often a timeline, some sort of overall plan like a synopsis or structure map, and whatever else serves me. Each rewrite of the novel is a separate document. When I start a new draft, I change the text color of the old one, so as I'm jumping between the two I don't lose track of which is which, especially when I'm copying and pasting from old to new.

Maryn, more organized than talented

RJK · Dec 5, 2008

I'm with KTC, except I save the source of the research in OneNote. I also list all my characters in OneNote with a notation about how they got into the story.
I'm 326 pages into my WIP, I know what the next scene is to be. I know the general direction I want to go, but I don't know the ending yet. I will when I get there.

DeleyanLee · Dec 5, 2008

My "research" is my lifetime of reading non-fiction for enjoyment. Since I own most of the books I find interesting (we have a dedicated library room in the house) and useful, going back to them isn't a problem. I don't really use the internet for much research because, well, I'm old and I've found more hooey on the Web then I've found useful stuff, so there's not much to print out there.

I generally write one chapter per file, though I do collect it all into a big file for printing purposes. Sometimes I'll put notes for later in the chapter at the end, but delete them as soon as they're no longer any use as a reminder.

The most I have at any point in writing is a cast list (especially when writing Fantasy or Historical) and word count page--both of which are in the same Excel file.

I print every chapter upon completion and put it in a 3-ring-binder, which becomes my first editing copy. When the book is finished, I print out a clean copy for the binder and add a soft copy of it (CD nowadays) to the folder and file it away.

That's about as organized as I get, I'm afraid.

tehuti88 · Dec 5, 2008

My "research," too, is just reading about the things I'm interested in. I'm building up a little library of books on the subject I love to write about. Research, to me, is just reading interesting things and incorporating them into my work should they belong there. I don't tend to take notes and such, though now that I'm reading through my books again, I am taking little notes and leaving them in the books themselves in case I want to find out where I got a specific detail. (Sometimes that bugs me, when I can't recall where I read something.)

Aside from that, I just write the story on the computer and there isn't really any organization involved except in computer folders. *shrug* Sometimes I do things like character lists and whatnot but that's more for my own enjoyment than anything.

I did enough organized research in high school and college; I don't want my writing to become a chore! My love of learning about what I'm interested in is enough for me. That's why I write fantasy fiction, so I don't need to use footnotes!

scarletpeaches · Dec 5, 2008

I have two lever-arch files with three WsIP in each, going right back to my trunk novel. BLARG.

I also have a ring binder where I keep the printed pages of my NaNo novel, now at 60k+. next year I'm going to see which ones have most viability and edit the snot out of them. Some are only half-written so they're not strictly speaking drafts, as works-in-progress, but I've got a lot of work to do on them.

Yeshanu · Dec 5, 2008

What is this organization of which you speak? :tongue

Seriously, my whole office is a mess of papers stored in unlabelled boxes, and I'm th poorer for it.

Kalyke · Dec 8, 2008

As far as "research" I keep scraps of papers, notes and so on, in a big box. Along with iterations of drafts. Usually they are not so organized. Any on-line research, titles of books read and so on, is kept as a citation list, just like you would if you were working on a term paper.

Don · Dec 8, 2008

I use yWriter 4, which provides all the organization I need. I break down chapters into scenes as they occur to me, which means I've always got a scene list for the next three or four chapters. If I get stuck on the current scene I can skip ahead and work on a different one until the muse unblocks where I was before.

I flesh out character descriptions and locations as necessary so I don't get crossed up later in the novel. I use the notes function to hold any research I'm likely to refer to more than once.

I always lost the thread of my WIP before I got yWriter 4. I've learned a lot about writing here too, though, so I think it's partly AW and Uncle Jim, and partly yWriter 4.

Shadow_Ferret · Dec 8, 2008

I do everything electronically. And I have a writing folder, in that is a subfolder for different types of writing, Fiction being the largest. Inside fiction, each novel has it's own folder and there's a folder for short stories.

That's pretty much it.

jgold · Dec 8, 2008

All of mine is on the laptop and two back-up flash drives.

A folder for each novel (currently there are two complete and one in progress), which contains the novel, query letter, synopses, cover letters and any notes or research. I don't outline, but sometimes I brainstorm upcoming chapters.

A folder for all short stories, subdivided into individual story folders if they're at the submission stage where I've got different file versions saved, along with the cover letters.

Fascinating, right?

Shadow_Ferret · Dec 8, 2008

jgold said:
Fascinating, right?

I was on the edge of my seat.

Actually, that's exactly how I do it. You just said it better.

scarletpeaches · Dec 8, 2008

Ah well, if we're talking electronically...

I have a folder marked 'Writing Projects'. Within that folder, most novels have their own folder, within which I keep the manuscript copy, the print copy (smaller font, single line spacing, makes for less paper use when printing of course), query letters, synopses, notes, soundtracks, character backgrounds and the like. I don't keep separate files for each chapter; I write my WIPs all in one; that way if you edit something and bump up the page numbers you don't have to reformat each chapter individually.

With my WP folder I also have subfolders for some of thethinker42's work as well; each labelled as the project's working title and within those, chapters she's chosen to send for me to beta, or hold for her as apparently, I'm cheaper than buying a new pen drive.

Blind Writer · Dec 8, 2008

With my first novel, which was randomly inspired by a song, it all just formed in my head. I didn't do an outline or make any notes. The novel was done in under a month. But that was a sudden inspiration that came out of nowhere.

With my current WIP, I've brooded over the idea for, oh, two years or so. So, when I decided to actually write it, I started with my characters. I wrote down exactly how I saw them in my head (hair, eyes, shape, height) and everything that i knew about them before hand. Then, I did a chapter by chapter outline of the events that I was sure would occur. My outline has changed numerous times, but I have noticed that my chapters are much longer when I outline. I've already surpassed 50K words, and I'm only halfway done. This could be bad considering its YA, but it's just a thought.

I do notes and outlines just depending on what I know going into it. Now, whenever I get story ideas, I write out a synopsis (a horrid one, but still) that gives me the basics so that, at a later time, I can look back on it and pick the idea back up.

That's basically how I do it.

jeany · Dec 8, 2008

I always need the index card system! I tend go off on long tangents and get mired down in endless background historical details, and the index cards force me to hone the info into just the juicy good bits I need. I'm such a pack rat--I always have a very hard time letting go of unnecessary details.

Last year I finally got a laptop computer, my first one, and I got the "Writers Blocks 3.1" software, and I'm almost finished doing my outline draft on it. It's basically electronic index cards with some extra features. (You could do the same thing with paper cards, but the electronic version is good because it's so easy to change and combine the cards, you don't have to cut and paste, etc.) For each section of the book I have a file. The file has 8 or so columns, each column representing a certain character's part in that section. Each main character and each supporting character has a long line cards lined up below his/her column, more or less put in chronological order, the earliest at the top, the latest at the bottom. All the characters' cards are color-coded. If I think I might have something good for this character's dialogue, I put that bit on a yellow card in his/her column. If the character does something at this stage that drives the plot, I put it on a red card. If it's just some background detail I might need, I'll throw it in on a blue card, though later I'll probably either cut it out or slip it into an action or dialogue card. Since I know I'm overburdened with dry background detail and short on action and dialogue, I try to have as many red and yellow cards as I can under each character's name. I plan to do this same thing over and over for every draft, just to help me hone in on the action and dialogue. Of course, on each subsequent draft I'll turn around and change everything in the cards any way I want to and end up with something else than what I started with, but that's the whole point of the process.

How do you Organize your WIP's? (research, fleshing out details)

Tnonk

Mumut

Well begun is half done...

Linda Adams

Soldier, Storyteller

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live

HeronW

Down Under Fan

Maryn

I Tried

RJK

Sheriff Bullwinkle the Poet says:

DeleyanLee

Writing Anarchist

tehuti88

Mackinac Island Fanatic

scarletpeaches

Yeshanu

Elf Queen

Kalyke

Don

All Living is Local

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

jgold

Grinning

Shadow_Ferret

Court Jester

scarletpeaches

Blind Writer

YA/MG Author

jeany