Organising the entire thing!

[Miss Taylor]

Hey everyone. I just wanted to get some feedback on the different ways of organising used during the planning process. This is the part of my writing I most struggle with. I've got myself a ringbinger for all my written things with sections, but I often end up unclipping all my sheets, clearing a
space on my carpet and placing things in a kind of chart/map layout, which can get very messy and complicated, and my room is fairly small.

Which method of organising your plans/research material do you find the best? I know a lot of writers keep a record of their planning on spreadsheets, and writing software, but I found that didnt work too well for me as I like to have written copies of my work that I can move about and re-organise.

Does anyone use a wall chart or some kind, with stickers or lists or sections or something along those lines? Thats the kind of this I was thinking of creating, just wondered if anyone had done this and found a really good system/method of keeping track of everything?

Thankies in advance,

MT

xx

 

[Purdy Bear]

Hi Miss Taylor

There is one very well published author that writes each scene on a different piece of paper and then lays them on the floor in any order. She dreads the day her cleaner messes it up, as she would have a totally different book! LOL

Im still re-organising my writing, but I do have folders for my main stories with books with research in them. The only thing is I cant find any of it at present under all the clutter, so Im gonna declutter major league this year!

I dont use a wall chart, but I am tempted to do a time line like that, it would be easier to see the flow that way.

Sorry I couldnt be of more help!

 

[dreamhunter]

Hi Missy,

You could just create a folder in MS Word, then create different files in it for different scenes, stories, chapters etc. I don't worry about pasting hard copy anywhere, but if that's what you like, then you could just print them out and paste. In colour too, and with whatever pictures you like, if that's what you want.

P.S.
I like to put a picture at the beginning of every chapter of my novel, like an lllustration. As if every chapter is a complete novel by itself.

I know I'll have to delete them when the whole book is done. But then I'll still have the draft with the pics on.

 

[Montero]

Or buy a roll of lining paper (plain wall paper), cheapest grade. Pin lengths up on the wall.
If you have very rigid timeline, with interleaving scenes that need to be timed right, you can draw in columns.
Can scribble on the wall paper in pencil and erase.
Or go for several colours of post-its and stick on and move. (They will loose their stick in the end or be blown of in the wind, so be careful.)

If you have a digital camera you might want to take a record of your musings from time to time.

Once everything is fixed, then you could transcribe the final results into Word (or Open Office Writer) plus Excel (OO Calc) for timelines.

I have in the past tried to use project planning software for this kind of thing and it did my head in.

 

[Dozmonic]

It all depends on how you view your novel. Some people view their novel as a 3 act story, and apportion a number of scenes or chapters accordingly into act 1 (introduction), 2 (development) and 3 (resolution). They have the turning point from act 1 to act 2, and the turning point from act 2 to act 3 to develop their story towards. For this they may use any number of techniques, but the one that you can find most easily that springs to mind is the snowflake method.

Other people I know view their story more as a set of scenes. They'll go ok, I need 100-120 scenes to tell this story. I have 4 main characters, so that is 25 scenes each for them. Then I can have 20 scenes for minor pov characters to help move the story along. And they'll work those scenes out onto record cards and the like.

Some people don't plan and just work their arse off writing and rewriting (Bernard Cornwell for example). Others plan lots but mix it with writing (Conn Iggulden). Some seem to plan everything then write it up in a fortnight (Kate Mosse I believe mentioned she did this in an interview somewhere, though I may be wrong). Some people storyboard their chapters (JK Rowling).

It's all about finding your own lines to draw

 

[MeriPie]

Before, I've always tried to write chronologically, but then I've become bogged down in thinking that what I wrote before was sacred... It usually also meant that I didn't actually have an ending in mind and just wanted to write SOMETHING.

This time, the whole thing sort of appeared in bits and pieces, starting from the middle, so I started there. I've bought myself a beautiful grey notebook (sooo expensive, but so worth it for its beauty) with plain pages so the lines don't restrict my creativity and I can doodle in it. Every time I think of anything I write it down in there. Weirdly enough I've found that writing the whole thing in a wacky order is really helping. If I run out of ideas on the bit I'm writing at the moment, I can just see what other thoughts I had in my lovely book and start writing those. Generally the beginning is starting to meet the middle now, and I want to get these bits mostly done before I write the end.

I'm thinking of my book in terms of the locations. Each different location is a different section, like a Tomb Raider game

 

[Window Bar]

One of my close friends uses the in-flight method: He strings a cord across the room, just above head height. Scene cards listing the characters and actions can then be moved forward or back with clips.

My wife uses the wall-chart method.

For myself, I favor chronological writing, so the manuscript (word processor, of course) is the organizer.

 

[2ndchance]

I like the washing line idea. I wrote one page for each chapter before I started a kinda chapter-by-chapter synopsis. I then expanded each page. Obviously, you may wish to change direction at some point, but providing you know your characters, and where you'd like them to end up, so, changes should be easy-ish. Indeed, I re-wrote the last four chapters three times.

Even with SF or F, you should maintain a sorta real life scenario. Broadly, we know how life works, how people behave/react, and how we get from a to b, even in a Delorian, complete with its flux-capacitor... Stick to real life and wobble it. IMO, you should end with a realistic flow and conclusion.

Ultimately, know your players intimately, your storyline clearly, the ending, and play it out in your head. Know what you’re writing.

Steve

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

I'm not entirely sure how the word "organizing" is spelled outside America, but I've never seen it spelled with an "S" before....




Ahem. Back to the thread. A lot of writers do tend to organize, and that is usually a good idea for those who want to be published, but I've found that just skipping this step entirely works for me. I write as my muse allows-and Juken gets pretty finicky a lot of the time.

It all really depends on how it works out. My organization is within my mind so I use no outward methods and just type then-I DO plan ahead, mentally.

 

[Dozmonic]

America uses z, rest of the world uses s ;-)

 

[Dash]

yWriter,
with the character cards and timeline mapped out in Excel (because yWriter just doesn't cut it). Yes, this is the digital generation!

 

[Precise Calibre]

I come up with a main idea for a storyline, usually based around characters I have already created and the concept of how I could possibly bring them into conflict with eachother or their environment. After that, I subdivide into areas of interest and summaries based on those events and places. The story is then written with the split summaries in mind but with an eye for improvisation if I come up with a good idea in the midst of it all.

The story itself is organized on the word processor in the form of a massive sprawl of individual pages, almost like a timeline...

Also, I perform traditional organization very poorly...

 

[Laustin]

This is really fascinating. It's great hearing about everyone's different writing methods and styles. It seems to come down to the difference in how our brains work, in how we organise (with an 's' people - this is English after all, not American...). It seems clear that what works for one writer would never work for the next.

I'm in the 'chronological' writing camp myself, with my planning consisting of several major set-piece scenes interspersed with a series of pre-determined plot points to be covered. I avoid losing my way by writing thorough backstories for all my characters, most of which never gets used in the my books, but which helps me keep each character real and distinctive no matter what happens to them. Once each plot point has been successfully incorporated into my story I highlight it in blue in my OpenOffice planning file and move onto the next. Simples.

So I have one file for characters; one for plot; one for excised or unused ideas; and one for a comprehensive timeline of events. I do this for each of my books. Yet my actual writing is done in strict chronological order; the way I see it, how can I know if the reader is experiencing my work in the right way if I haven't written it exactly how they're reading it? That's just me though. I'm a bit of a control freak...