Working with notes

[Brian G Turner]

Normally I work with 2 doc files - one for writing, one for notes.

Previously, I'd try and write - and if I had any notes to make, add them to the notes file. At some point I'd read through my notes, and edit/rewrite accordingly.

However, I recently started to add the notes direct to the writing file. An idea for something to include in a scene? Put it at the top of the scene, instead of the notes - no problem. Thinking of writing a scene? Then collate the notes together, and put them under that chapter heading - and use them to guide the writing.

What a mistake. My writing progress has slowed and stalled - because instead of simply trying to write a draft, I've been pushing too hard to try and write a polished version using the notes to guide me.

It's totally killed the creative process of simply putting something down, then revising later, but I've only just realised why.

I keep advising other members to worry first about simply writing a draft, then come back to it later. It's time to follow my own advice.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Normally I work with 2 doc files - one for writing, one for notes.

Previously, I'd try and write - and if I had any notes to make, add them to the notes file. At some point I'd read through my notes, and edit/rewrite accordingly.

However, I recently started to add the notes direct to the writing file. An idea for something to include in a scene? Put it at the top of the scene, instead of the notes - no problem. Thinking of writing a scene? Then collate the notes together, and put them under that chapter heading - and use them to guide the writing.

What a mistake. My writing progress has slowed and stalled - because instead of simply trying to write a draft, I've been pushing too hard to try and write a polished version using the notes to guide me.

It's totally killed the creative process of simply putting something down, then revising later, but I've only just realised why.

I keep advising other members to worry first about simply writing a draft, then come back to it later. It's time to follow my own advice.

And yet, for me, to have a separate folder for notes to come back to would kill the creative process. I make notes in the main doc for my next pass, and when I revise I start on page one and work my way through.

Horses for courses. do what works for you.

 

[Wruter]

Have you seen the video on Youtube of Brandon Sanderson writing a chapter of the Stormlight Archive live? He seems to do what you describe, having notes, lists of names etc at the top of the document to scroll back to, clearly works for him. I guess it would be difficult to find any two writers with totally identical working methods. I've never used notes personally. Maybe I should.

 

[Cathbad]

My notes are all on paper. That way, I don't have to switch files.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Horses for courses. do what works for you.

Yes.

What works for me is folder for each series. In it is folder for websites saved, other imported documents, an images folder and folders for each book.
I have separate files for each kinds of notes.
I use Notepad++ (A windows free program, under WINE on Linux) as it is very powerful, allows search or search & replace (optionally with regex) in file, directory, all open files or even subdirectories with a file mask such as ct_*.txt or whatever. It uses tabs for multiple files. Just text, though importing to word or Libreoffice/OpenOffice quotes, bold etc is formatted.
I also installed the software used for Wikipedia (it's free and can be installed on Windows, Mac or Linux if you install Apache and PHP) locally and on secret password protected hosting and have a global wiki for all my writing notes and worldbuilding. Text from notepad++ or Word /Libre is copy and pasted and the two Wikis are syncronised. Also via "edit" you can copy paste text from actual Wikis, not limited to Wikipedia in your own wiki structure.

I also sometimes add a 2nd screen to laptop and always have two 1600 x 1200 screens on desktop.
Everything is backed up four places minimum (my attic server, my workstation, my laptop and a standalone HDD (I have two) via USB). I also backup versions on my private parts of my hosting.
I often copy everything to an SD card and use that on my small netbook computer if away from home.
I have a plain text editor on my Sony phone called Jottr or Jotter and copy via USB to the computers.

 

[mosaix]

Ray, not only am I stunned with the range of hardware and software that you use, but that you can actually remember it all!

 

[Brian G Turner]

Exactly - work with what works for you.

Having a few notes is one thing - but for some unwritten scenes I'm dumping a couple of thousand words of notes at the start, and then am left struggling to get my head around including it all.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Exactly - work with what works for you.

Having a few notes is one thing - but for some unwritten scenes I'm dumping a couple of thousand words of notes at the start, and then am left struggling to get my head around including it all.

Ah, you see I'd never have that many notes. When I get edits, though, they have a lot - then I retain it in a seperate file and check in for each chapter.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Exactly - work with what works for you.

Having a few notes is one thing - but for some unwritten scenes I'm dumping a couple of thousand words of notes at the start, and then am left struggling to get my head around including it all.

I keep mine in a notepad because they're generally thoughts I have once I've stepped away and these are some of my latest ones.

• Demons can't be killed -- so how did demon in Chapter 9 die? Connect it to The Fragility
• What did John do with his daughter between Chapter 19 and 20? Bring her in.
• Gandalf [dog] needs to be in Chapter 20 as well as the rest of the family -- just have him sleeping in front of fire.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Ray, not only am I stunned with the range of hardware and software that you use, but that you can actually remember it all!

I can't.

That's why I use the tools I've used for design & implementation of large software and hardware projects (once a staff of 20 under my erratic leadership, I'm an ideas person not a manager).
So

1. instead of System design: Outline, Plot, places, Events, Characters, technologies, magic systems, governmental and economics systems.
2. Instead of library functions: Outline of or draft of each chapter / scene / event as text file
3. Instead of complete program: Assemble relevant text files into OpenOffice/LibreOffice/MS Word.
4. Instead of running program: Proof read novel on Kindle or Kobo
5. Instead of debugging: Annotate on Kindle/Kobo, import as text into Notepad++, then edit new version of novel.

Individual files are prefixed by a letter abbreviation of working title and suffixed by version. Always SAVE AS with incremented version number before deletion or rearranging content.
Always save as new version on each re-write / edit / proof.
I'm finding I'm getting rapidly better at proofing / editing now, for ages I didn't seem to make any progress.

I'm not as organised as I sound. Sometimes I just write a very large chunk (5K to 30K words) in a "pantser" style and see what happens, then if there is anything to it, I'll try and plot it, list out major events, places etc and then work on a complete 1st draft.

The important things:

• Have an easy way of capturing text into files.
• Always have a way of easily finding any information.
• Make backups!
• Never delete content, re-arrange, or re-write without creating a new version, never overwrite or delete old versions.
• Everything that's not a complete draft or novel in separate files. Easier to find, organise and less lost if a file is damaged.
• Use logical file naming and version numbering.
• Use folders and subfolders.
• Make lists!

Organise computer storage of files and folders as per best practice of physical files in filing cabinets. File names and folders are free.

Make Backups! Have older backups you don't overwrite!

I do have a paper jotter. I ALWAYS put what I note on it into computer next day. I avoid it.
I have a scanner and camera to capture any sketches and maps I might do.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

range of hardware and software that you use

My laptop bought in April 2002. Still runs same copy of XP, re-installed in June 2002, but carefully configured. Boots in 45s.
My Desktop workstation, the son-in-laws scrapped gamer machine retired about 3 years ago and a potential client of a SW project paid for Hard drive and RAM for it. Linux Mint with Mate Desktop.
My Netbook was a retired machine from another son a couple of years ago when he got a tablet.
Libre Office is replacement for OpenOffice, which is from Star Office (used it late 1990s). I also use MS Word 2002/XP sometimes still.

My attic server is about 14 years old and used to run NT4.0 Enterprise. I've had a server at home since 1993. It was upgraded to Server 2003, then changed to Win 2000 Advanced Server as Server 2003 was too bloated for the amount of RAM. Then we changed it to Debian version of Linux, maybe 6 years ago? I forget what the previous server was, but 1999 we had a dual P90 as server with SIX 4Gbyte ultrawide and fast 15,000 RPM hot swap drives with RAID5 redundancy. It lived in an outhouse and you'd not believe how noisy. Current server very quiet and lower power consumption, but just a single 2T byte SATA drive, so backups are very important. You need backups anyway with RAID5, as user deletion is biggest risk, far behind is malware, and then HW failure is least issue.

Most of the software is easy to use, free and been around for years.

 

[Ursa major]

Horses for courses. do what works for you.

This.

 

[Coast]

Was just about to post that I since I've really just been writing shorter bits and pieces, I am using a A5 notepad and pen, and I'm still managing to confuse myself.

Then I read more replies.....

**Back away quietly Coast. No-one has noticed you yet. Quick, before they spot you**

Seriously though, if it's not too tangential- Would you say the use and scale of notes, files, folders etc related to whether you're writing by plotting or by pantsing?
I'm mainly curious because I'm still trying to find a process for myself.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Was just about to post that I since I've really just been writing shorter bits and pieces, I am using a A5 notepad and pen, and I'm still managing to confuse myself.

Then I read more replies.....

**Back away quietly Coast. No-one has noticed you yet. Quick, before they spot you**

Seriously though, if it's not too tangential- Would you say the use and scale of notes, files, folders etc related to whether you're writing by plotting or by pantsing?
I'm mainly curious because I'm still trying to find a process for myself.

Drags Coast back and welcomes them in.

I think it's related to a couple of things:

The process. so, yes, pantsters probably have fewer notes
The work itself and how well the person knows the subject matter. For my space opera stuff I have more notes than for my NI based stuff because I know NI well and what towns are where etc whereas for Abendau I'm making up a whole world. Historical stuff etc will need more notes.
The creative process. I don't like to get too bogged down with technicalities, I find it stops me creating.

 

[Ihe]

For seamless note-draft integration, Scrivener does it for me. The split screen function rocks, and there are so many ways of structured tagging/commenting/expanding it's ridonkulous. Love it. But Brian is right, notes slow me down as well.

 

[Cory Swanson]

On my first book, I made extensive notes, and that resulted in info dump. I have big rewrites in my future.

Book two I have approached more naturalistically. No notes, the outline is in my head and ever changing.

It's either going to be great or a load of steaming...... I'm still figuring out my process.

 

[Nick B]

Because the wip is a collaboration, notes are indespensible really. We also tend to write scenes as seperate documents, so there are quite a few files. Add to the the massive amount of worlbuilding notes, essays, graphs, artwork, spreadsheets and stuff and you end up with... A lot of stuff.
We work together using cloudbased storage (what a dumb name for server based storage), so it is actually saved in multiple places all of the time. I also have a cruiser fit usb stick permanently attached to my notebook that is only used to back up writing files daily. Because you can't be too paranoid right?

I would guess that for Liberator, we have somewhere in the region of 70 to 80 files. A lot of that will eventually be condenced down to a few folders and archived once Liberator is actually published, but all of the world building stuff has to remain, to be used for the rest of the series. Many, many notes...

 

[Cathbad]

I often make notes while I write: "make sure i spelled name Adrianna, not Adriana" ; "Correct Dylan's injury; left not right leg" ; "Alyssa 902 yrs old"

Also, when I was writing my epic fantasy, there were too many secondary characters and places for my mind to recall, esp. when i only needed the names a few times. A page with the names and identification kept me consistent. I only have the laptop, and hate a split screen, so written notes do it for me.

My only problem was preventing my caretaker from mistaking them for trash, lol.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Because you can't be too paranoid right?

RIGHT!

 

[Ray McCarthy]

i spelled name Adrianna, not Adriana

I have custom dictionaries for each series to help with names and places (many real names and places aren't in them).
I back up the dictionaries and you can use a text editor on them, and it's not hard to move them MS Word <-Libre/Open Office