Is anyone else's laptop a complete mess? I am beyond disorganized. I have about a million folders on my desktop, plus a million documents. It takes a search to find anything. How do you keep all your writing organized? Any tips for a very disorganized writer? I feel like I just need a new laptop so I can start fresh, but that's not really an option, and I would still need to sort though everything to see what I still needed. I really don't know how it got this bad, but it did.
Organizing and keeping track of all your writing
- Thread starter gettingby
- Start date
- Status
I have a busy desktop, but it's pretty ordered. Each project gets a desktop folder, and each day's work is named by date and lives inside its own project folder. I use alphabetical suffixes for the backups I save as I go.
The biggest thing I learned the hard way was to have a journal as well, that says what I plan to do today, any notes from yesterday, and what needs to be done tomorrow.
I don't write short stories, but I expect the same thing would work well enough - although there's probably an app for it
ETA: Research, Feedback and Submissions have separate folders inside the project folder. Also Stonkingly Good Reviews (my favourite folder).
The biggest thing I learned the hard way was to have a journal as well, that says what I plan to do today, any notes from yesterday, and what needs to be done tomorrow.
I don't write short stories, but I expect the same thing would work well enough - although there's probably an app for it
ETA: Research, Feedback and Submissions have separate folders inside the project folder. Also Stonkingly Good Reviews (my favourite folder).
Last edited:
I use Yarny. You can have as many manuscripts under it as you want. There is also a section for notes.
For websites and such, I create a folder for each book under My Favorites. I also have folders for each book on my computer for stuff pertaining to each (notes, backup files, etc.)
For websites and such, I create a folder for each book under My Favorites. I also have folders for each book on my computer for stuff pertaining to each (notes, backup files, etc.)
I use Scrivener. Basic Scrivener projects, which is what I prefer, are set up so that there is a Draft, a Research and a Trash folder.
Each project has its own folder/file.
I have a separate file for fragments and story ideas, research etc. Anything that takes off is migrated to a new project. All kept within a greater 'My Projects' folder within documents.
Each project has its own folder/file.
I have a separate file for fragments and story ideas, research etc. Anything that takes off is migrated to a new project. All kept within a greater 'My Projects' folder within documents.
David Allen's "Getting Things Done" was a big help to me in keeping the strangling disorder at bay and at - getting things done.
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2005
- Messages
- 55,679
- Reaction score
- 25,853
Mine's pretty organized, since I made it so when I moved into this laptop. It goes like this:
DROPBOX
--FICTION
----SHORT STORIES
------2016TITLEONE
--------1STDRAFT
--------2NDDRAFT
------2016TITLETWO
------SUBMISSIONS
----NOVELS+NOVELLAS
------TITLEONE
--------CHARACTERS
--------SETTING
--------CONCORDANCE
--------PLOTTINGSPREADSHEET
--------RESEARCH
----------SWORDS
----------MILLINERS
----------REUPHOLSTERY
--------1STDRAFT
--------2ND DRAFT
--------SYNOPSIS
--------QUERY
--------RECORDS-SUBMISSION
--RECIPES
----BREAD
----CHICKEN
--HEALTH
----IMMUNIZATION RECORDS
----DOCTORS NAMES
...and so on. I put all my writing (and much of my other stuff) inside the Dropbox folder so it backs up any time I'm online. I do not have pictures and images, video, or music files inside Dropbox, since they'd exceed the capacity you get for free (and they're backed up elsewhere).
If I were in your position of needing to organize, I'd start by creating empty folders for my writing material, breaking it down in any way that makes sense.
DROPBOX
--FICTION
----SHORT STORIES
------2016TITLEONE
--------1STDRAFT
--------2NDDRAFT
------2016TITLETWO
------SUBMISSIONS
----NOVELS+NOVELLAS
------TITLEONE
--------CHARACTERS
--------SETTING
--------CONCORDANCE
--------PLOTTINGSPREADSHEET
--------RESEARCH
----------SWORDS
----------MILLINERS
----------REUPHOLSTERY
--------1STDRAFT
--------2ND DRAFT
--------SYNOPSIS
--------QUERY
--------RECORDS-SUBMISSION
--RECIPES
----BREAD
----CHICKEN
--HEALTH
----IMMUNIZATION RECORDS
----DOCTORS NAMES
...and so on. I put all my writing (and much of my other stuff) inside the Dropbox folder so it backs up any time I'm online. I do not have pictures and images, video, or music files inside Dropbox, since they'd exceed the capacity you get for free (and they're backed up elsewhere).
If I were in your position of needing to organize, I'd start by creating empty folders for my writing material, breaking it down in any way that makes sense.
I actually almost never save anything to my desktop. Everything is under my "documents" folder, and I have a few sub-folders therein. I know a lot of people who write novels chapter-by-chapter, and save each chapter as an individual document. That would complicate things greatly, but I've never done that.
Individual drafts are "saved as" "TITLE draft X" before I make any changes. It's by no means a perfect system, but control-F is my friend
Individual drafts are "saved as" "TITLE draft X" before I make any changes. It's by no means a perfect system, but control-F is my friend
Another vote for Scrivener. It's made my writing life much easier, along with Dropbox.
I work from my desktop, but it's pretty well organized. Each novel has its own folder, and inside that folder are my drafts and research, etc. I do have a general "Writing" folder on the desktop that things get shifted into once I'm no longer actively working on them.
I use Evernote to organize all of my research, character sheets, timelines, images I've collected, etc. For my actual writing I use Google Drive, and organize folders similar to how Maryn described in her response. Both are in the cloud, and I've added the apps to my phone, laptop, and iPad so that I can write any time the mood strikes. I've made my docs available offline so that I don't have to have an internet connection to write.
To enable offline access:
To enable offline access:
- Go to docs.google.com (or sheets.google.com or slides.google.com).
- Click on the menu icon at left.
- Select Settings.
- Look for "Offline Sync" and click "Turn on."
I am almost positive I have everyone else beat on disorganized writing files.
I have my writing files spread across two desktop computers, one laptop, one external hard drive, one tablet, seven thumb drives, 4 floppy disks, one zip disk, and Dropbox.
I have my writing files spread across two desktop computers, one laptop, one external hard drive, one tablet, seven thumb drives, 4 floppy disks, one zip disk, and Dropbox.
This. My very basic usage of Scrivener is super sleek and organized with just a little effort--and I am decidedly *not* an organized person overall. Scrivener makes it pretty easy.
kmayes
Registered
I use Google Docs
- 1 file for each chapter (so I can get to it quickly for revision). Each has links to the previous/next so I can read straight through
- 'Table of contents' file that has link to each chapter
- 'Notes' file that lists things I want to revise. It has a section for each chapter + overall. I try to keep to to around a page, so that I don't get too overwhelmed.
- 'References' file that has links to my information sources, also organized by chapter & topic. I am writing in an historical setting so there are lots of details and real figures I need to research
- 'Outline' spreadsheet that lists each chapter with a 1-3 sentence summary, characters involved, timeline, identifies key plot points, and I'm gradually adding word count as I write and revise.
- 'archive' folder for previous versions, because google doesn't save these automatically
- 1 file for each chapter (so I can get to it quickly for revision). Each has links to the previous/next so I can read straight through
- 'Table of contents' file that has link to each chapter
- 'Notes' file that lists things I want to revise. It has a section for each chapter + overall. I try to keep to to around a page, so that I don't get too overwhelmed.
- 'References' file that has links to my information sources, also organized by chapter & topic. I am writing in an historical setting so there are lots of details and real figures I need to research
- 'Outline' spreadsheet that lists each chapter with a 1-3 sentence summary, characters involved, timeline, identifies key plot points, and I'm gradually adding word count as I write and revise.
- 'archive' folder for previous versions, because google doesn't save these automatically
Last edited:
I would need to actually have writings worth keeping to create a folder structure for organizing them. LOL
Folder > Sub-folder, Scrivener, and Kanban (sometimes). But mostly the first two.
Also, notepads -- labelled, numbered, and dated on the cover and on the inside pages.
Also, colour coding for handwritten notes made on note paper yet to be typed up or attached the relevant area in the relevant notepad.
Also, notepads -- labelled, numbered, and dated on the cover and on the inside pages.
Also, colour coding for handwritten notes made on note paper yet to be typed up or attached the relevant area in the relevant notepad.
- Status