organizing

satyesu

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I'm finding I'm remembering more and more working on my WIP and the word doc I'm pasting it all in is in chronological order is getting to be a wall of text that's hard to glean anything from, and harder to move stuff around in. Is there a better way to do thihs, like maybe timeline-organizing software?
 

Chrisla

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Satyesu, I don't know if there's any software. I had a problem in that we moved around so much, I wasn't sure where or when things happened. I finally started a separate file, and under each year listed my siblings' ages and our grade in school. From that, I was able to fit in proper sequences of events--just short, one-line notes. That served as a rough table of contents as I worked my way through the chapters. That list helped later, too, when I researched events, interviewed people, and looked at what was taking place in the world at large during any specific period of time.

Using the years as a reference may not help you, but if you can make a similar list, based on the structure of your book, I think you might find it helpful. If nothing else, it was a method for me to look at what I wanted to include, get those things into the right place, and not inadvertently repeat them somewhere else.

Best of luck!
 

jerrywaxler

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MS Word headings and automatic table of contents

I use Microsoft Word's automatic table of contents. For each segment or scene, create a meaningful subhead and format it with a style of Header 1, 2, or 3. Then at the beginning of the document insert a table of contents - voila. Your headings will appear in a list at the beginning of the document. To refresh the list, highlight it and press F9.

Jerry