Writing Tips: Organization

Hello all!

I'm back with a new writing tip this week. So let's dive in!

TOPIC: Organization

This may seem like an obvious thing for a writer to have but it's not as easy as one might think. Organization doesn't just apply to making sure you have all the elements in a story in a coherent order. It can apply to the story development phase of the process, which is what we will be talking about today.

As a writer, you no doubt have more than one idea floating around in your noggin. Lord knows, I've got several stories fighting for my attention right now. So how do you keep them straight and make sure you don't go crazy trying to keep them all in line? You commit them to a print media and let them stew for a while.

I have found that keeping an Excel spreadsheet allows me to get down the details of ideas in a smei-coherent form and free up space in my head. I recently decided this would be a good idea to keep my latest shiny new ideas from tangling up with one another.

What I've done is set up mutiple sheets within the larger document, each tab relating to its own idea. Each sheet has the same set up. Title, genre short summary and status columns for drafts. This is an easy way to jot down some basic ideas about a storyline and characters without having to spend arduous hours working through every plot detail. That comes later when you're actually ready to tackle that idea and take it through the whole writing process.

A quick note about titles. They are by no means set in stone (as we talked about before). These should be something that will jog your memory down the road so you don't sit there going "now what was this again?" Even with summaries, you can sometimes forget where you were going with an idea. Having a title helps your brain latch on and recall those initial brain sparks that got you interested in the idea in the first place.

Now, Excel isn't required to keep a list of ideas. A simple Word or Text file would suffice just as well. I tend to be a little anal about my organization and the additional separation of Excel sheets suits me. Regardless of how you decide to keep your ideas organized, it's important that you do so. If not for all the wonderful bits and pieces that you come up with, than for your sanity. After all, no one wants to go crazy with a zillion ideas bouncing around in their head.

I hope this little tip was somewhat helpful. See you next week!